I still don't know what I'm doing. When playing as the Zerg I think I came sort of close to losing against the AI.

I know Koreans love the micro, but Blizzard needs to get with the times and add a Research cycle button.

The first few matches you play vs. humans will be in a practice league where there's a giant rock in front of your base to prevent rushes. Plus the people in those first matches will generally really stink. And losing isn't that big a deal anyhow. At the very least we could do 2v2 comp and I could share my wisdom. So let's go!

Is the beta ever going to add more than 4 player slots? Maybe the Very Easy computer would be viable if there were 8 of them.

I'm enjoying this beta. Especially just running around with Reapers, who are just a laugh and a half. Why harass probes when I can just destroy their Nexus in a few seconds! I'm sure they'll be nerfed eventually but until that day comes, I intend to have lots of fun with those buggers.

Also Frad, we need to continue our quest to rise to the top.

They just did nerf Reapers (And Vikings, thanks, like they didn't explode fast enough.)

The build time for this unit has increased from 30 to 40.
Nitro Boost: The build time for this upgrade has increased from 90 to 100.

And that was on top of the first patch nerf:

The damage done from D-8 Charges has decreased from 40 to 30.
The delay between attacks for D-8 Charges has decreased from 2.5 to 1.8.

(Well I guess that one's more like a tweak, less damage but faster, and I have no idea how to measure the overall change in DPS.)

Actually let me try

ummm

I got 16 vs 16.6

That's prolly wrong

Nah it's not a significant nerf. A Command Center is like 1500 hp and a group of 12 of these guys can deal about 360 damage to a building in one volley before armour. This means that they can essentially kill a Command Center/Nexus/Hatchery in about 4 attacks (7.2 seconds). And they're still super fast and more than a match for Zealots/Stalkers/Zerglings/Roaches/Terran things that aren't Reapers with some kiting and even after the build time nerf you can have 12 before the guy's teched to something scary (or at least that's my experience thus far). And even if you can't get at the enemy CC, there's still a deadly amount of harass to be done. The squad of 12 can down a Photon Cannon or Supply Depot or Pylon in one shot, if I'm not mistaken.

Not fool-proof, of course, as they're almost as easy to kill as Marines. But right now if you catch someone off guard with the things...

Edit: I managed to do it even when the guy saw it coming and put two photon cannons next to his workers. I just killed the cannons and then downed a fair number of workers before his forces came to drive me away. I went on to beat him thanks to the headstart that gave me in the resource war.

I only do it when it's a map with a jumpable cliff away from the choke in the enemy's main base. There's a surprising number of maps that have a river or something around the main base, which I think is an odd choice on the the part of Blizzard's mapmaking people.

I finally finished by single player placement games. I'm on the Silver Ladder! That's good right? Maybe? I'm not sure! If all there is after that is Gold then I guess I'm awesome but if there's Platinum and Diamond and whatever else I guess I suck. I really lost my last placement game to my refusal to give Zerg a serious look. I really didn't know that an Overlord could drop creep and make a Nydus Canal in a fogged corner of my base like 10 minutes into the game! I wonder what other surprises await me.

Meanwhile me and Frad's team (Also called "Team Discovery Channel") is ranked in the copper ladder, which I believe is the 'Oh. Um... well... I guess we have to rank you somewhere?' ladder. But I have full confidence in our collective abilities. Through discipline, hard work and faith we shall claw our way up the ranks and eventually conquer Korea itself, where we shall reign as kings.

Frad where are you? I see you lurking the forums. How can we claw our way up to the top if we aren't in a constant struggle for greatness?

http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmes ... _id=112991

If you feel like watching replays, there are some good players posting em there. I've seen a lot of cool tricks including the one you mentioned.

So we did we learn tonight, um, was it nerf Roaches and Nydus's? Anything else?

We learned that everyone in the beta is hacking. Except for us that is.

I did some more one on one. I find that while it's really frustrating to lose a game it's not very satisfying to win. I'm not sure why that is. I just had a game where my base was wiped but I had a hidden and island expansion, which I fortified and built Carriers and stuff off of. I raided for a while and delayed his expansions enough to hit the guy with an upset oh-wow-what-a-comeback win, but it still didn't do much for me. It left the overall feeling of 'meh, guess I won then'.

I'd probably have more fun playing Team Fortress 2. From now on my SC2 efforts will be limited to me and Frad's quixotic quest for glory.

Seriously?



I think a big part of the problem is that you spend five minutes building up your economy and your base, blow your load, and it's over. Especially in the pro games I've watched, there were very few epic matches.

Personally I'm hoping people come up with cool custom maps like all the stuff War3 had. I can't wait to see the map editor.

Lack of UI improvements really hurt it too. Honestly, where's the streamlined interface? Why can't they put all the upgrades on one convenient upgrade screen rather than making you click from building to building? Why can't unit production be handled without scrolling back to your base without first making a bunch of hotkeys? If I can't build something due to lack of resources then and there, why can't I tell the building to start it and spend the resources as soon as they come in?

I understand that Koreans are a fan of clicking a lot and have made that into their national sport, but those kinds of limitations were only okay back in frickin' 1999. There's been a decade of RTS innovation since then. Hell WC3 was much more streamlined than this

This is probably the most overhyped game sequel ever so obviously they'll sell millions, but I swear the amount of new ideas in this game can be counted on one hand. It's harsh, but I'd describe this 'sequel' as more of a graphical update with a few rejiggered units mixed in with a couple of new ones to show that they aren't just completely phoning it in.

Sorry, this is Korea's game now. You just have to accept that.

Agh seriously, fuck the people that are advocating this shit. "DUR YOU WANT A BABBY GAME THAT PLAYS ITSELF" FUCK YOU

If FO is representative of the player base, there's no hope of getting an RTS that feels like it was at least made in 2003 (Remember Rise of Nations and how you could press tab to cycle research, that was awesome. Along with infinite unit queues and worker automation. And that was seven years ago. Good fucking game, Blizzard.)

And no Rich he wasn't serious about the hacking. I think.

This pretty much describes why I've never really gotten into any competitive RTS multiplayer ever. WC2, SC1, WC3, I barely dabbled in multiplayer at all. They were single player games for me. It'll probably be the same with SC2.

Sins of a Solar Empire might work, except it's the other extreme where it's not 5 minutes but 5 hours.

I can see that much yeah.

In WC3 the unit upgrade system was at least tighter. You built a building for upgrades and that's where you did all your upgrades for every guy in your army. If a creature had a specific special ability then that was researched in the very same building that it was produced in. Even that level of streamlining would be very nice.

I wonder if they'll be a reviewer backlash. If they don't upgrade this shit by release and it still gets "10/10, Game of the Year, Blizzard has done it again" then I think that will prove that Blizzard has the game media in its pocket.

Well, I decided to play the Driver game again, see if it did anything. It helped a little, I think. Not enough, but a little. I was able to play the game on high settings in full screen for a while before I started getting graphical distortions again. So I sighed and switched to Windowed, wondering not for the first time what it was about Windowed Vs. Full Screen that makes the difference. But eventually it froze, and when it unfroze, everything looked psychedelic, so I decided to quit while I was ahead at that point.

I think I'm leaning toward just having a really shitty card at this point. I could hear the fan going very loudly (GPU-Z even said it was going at full blast.) I think I'll get FO's diverse opinion in addition to Osi's and then put this card to rest.

We still need to continue our quest for glory remember.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8toFV3KKs0

wat

Very.. something.


Hey Rich, help us out, what's the counter to 500 marines in the first 10 minutes in 2v2