**** Original Starcraft 2 Thread ****

Soldato
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Even though I've owned this game since release, I'm actually new to playing. I only own WoL for now though, but once I've improved I'll think about buying the others.

I have been trying to get practice using Teran, since it's the easier to probably learn. I've played through the Training and Stage 1, 2 and 3. I've finish stage 1 and 2 pretty easily. My first go on stage 3 though, I was destroyed.

Does anyone feel like mentoring me a little to help me improve? :D I'm not looking at being super competitive, but so long as I can hold my own in a match, that would be nice. I seem a little slow in starting out, so by the time I create an army, they have something bigger. Also doesn't help when in early games, they make a surprise attack. I'm still making my way through campaign also.

Also, can anyone provide me with any good tutorials to read up on from websites / youtubers who create tutorials?
 
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Soldato
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Bit gutted, I preordered a physical copy of the collectors edition of lotv, no access to the prologue missions. Seems only people who preordered from blizzard get that particular perk. Its only annoying because you cant actually get the collectors edition from blizz otherwise it would be a no brainer :( \rant.

Anyway Spacedeck welcome to starcraft! Not sure how many people on here are still really into it, but hopefully a few of us can point you in the right direction with some practice games. Back when i was heavily into WoL Day9 had some handy videos for learning the basic mechanics and looked pretty deeply into "pro strategies". Keep browsing places like TeamLiquid, there are always good discussion points there.

Otherwise try to focus on fundamentals, "always be building" is a good mantra. If youre always (and by that i mean every second of the game) building workers and supply depots/pylons/overlords and also keeping your mineral/gas count down as low as possible (by teching/building units) then youre macroing well! Thats a good thing to focus on and if you can do it well then youll be at least platinum league in no time.

Ive actually started playing a bit again since the lotv beta is out. One thing to bear in mind is that this new expansion COMLETELY changes the game. Starting with 12 workers everything goes crazy very quickly, so while you should definitely focus on learning the fundamentals of economy building, i would not focus too much on learning and perfecting lots of specific builds because it all goes out the window with lotv.

Anyway if a few people are still playing we should get some games together on hots/lotv!
 
Soldato
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Bit gutted, I preordered a physical copy of the collectors edition of lotv, no access to the prologue missions. Seems only people who preordered from blizzard get that particular perk. Its only annoying because you cant actually get the collectors edition from blizz otherwise it would be a no brainer :( \rant.

Anyway Spacedeck welcome to starcraft! Not sure how many people on here are still really into it, but hopefully a few of us can point you in the right direction with some practice games. Back when i was heavily into WoL Day9 had some handy videos for learning the basic mechanics and looked pretty deeply into "pro strategies". Keep browsing places like TeamLiquid, there are always good discussion points there.

Otherwise try to focus on fundamentals, "always be building" is a good mantra. If youre always (and by that i mean every second of the game) building workers and supply depots/pylons/overlords and also keeping your mineral/gas count down as low as possible (by teching/building units) then youre macroing well! Thats a good thing to focus on and if you can do it well then youll be at least platinum league in no time.

Ive actually started playing a bit again since the lotv beta is out. One thing to bear in mind is that this new expansion COMLETELY changes the game. Starting with 12 workers everything goes crazy very quickly, so while you should definitely focus on learning the fundamentals of economy building, i would not focus too much on learning and perfecting lots of specific builds because it all goes out the window with lotv.

Anyway if a few people are still playing we should get some games together on hots/lotv!

agreed - watch games on youtube, starcraft husky channel is good. Learn the basics and then go from there.

Agree with others - LOTV is like a new game - instead of being fairly slow to start it's ridiculously fast now with 12 workers etc. Hard stuff after being out of action on this for a while. The new units take some time to get use to as well!
 
Soldato
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Thanks guys, I've already started watching Husky and doing the training stages the game provides. I like them as they guide you in what to build.

I've been playing with a friend against the AI. We don't want to do this too much though as our rank increases :( when I come to actual human v human, I'll be faced with hard players.
 
Soldato
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Thanks guys, I've already started watching Husky and doing the training stages the game provides. I like them as they guide you in what to build.

I've been playing with a friend against the AI. We don't want to do this too much though as our rank increases :( when I come to actual human v human, I'll be faced with hard players.

don't get disheartened if you get beat a lot to start with, learn from them. watch your replays - see what you could have done better etc.

With terran - always try and pressure from the outset where possible, never let zerg go unchecked in the early game as you will almost never come back from the economy that zerg build, against protoss always look out for proxy pylons etc. Scouting , scouting scouting is the key.

If you know what your opponent is up to, then you can prepare/plan for it - if not your guessing!
 
Soldato
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I've just played my 3 games vs the AI to receive my vs AI rank. The first two games I was Terran and they was Protoss.

The first match started on Easy, I lost this and couldn't seem to build enough. By the time I had a nice little army, they already had flying ships.

Second match was put at Very Easy, so I ended up winning this pretty easily.

Then the third match, it was on Easy and it was Terran vs Terran. I tried to do the early scouting before they had chance to get any enemy out. I realised I better make my Barracks when I witnessed them already building :p I defending a couple of early attacks. I then hurt them pretty much with my first outing. Second outing I pretty much finished them off as my army was bigger and better by then.

So at this moment playing vs AI, I have been put on Easy difficulty. I hope this can only increase!

The only thing I have found, is Zerg and Protoss seem to be able to advance much quicker than I can as Terran?
 
Soldato
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So last night I decided to buy HotS expansion. Jumped straight into my first 3 vs AI games and, the speed hit me that this performs much faster? I actually think I prefer this. Easy is a little too easy, but Medium is still hard, but leaves me a challenge.

My game on Medium, I took advantage of making two early surprise attacks, which seemed like they worked. I still lost this battle though. They was Protoss and in the end, they just build a bigger army than me, despite me attacking them first. I just seemed to not have anything to protect base in time.

I think I've nailed some of my mistakes though. I don't build enough Barracks, I sometimes just randomly click things to upgrade because I can :p, I very rarely make any early surprise attacks, I also seem to just attack until all my men are dead, rather than attack and retreat back to base to regroup and, I don't move out of my base to expand until it's often too late.

I've been learning to plant some of them mines near the ramp of my base, get starports built early on, and scout my enemy from an early stage but I still have a long long way to go before I beat the AI on Medium.
 
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Soldato
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So last night I decided to buy HotS expansion. Jumped straight into my first 3 vs AI games and, the speed hit me that this performs much faster? I actually think I prefer this. Easy is a little too easy, but Medium is still hard, but leaves me a challenge.

My game on Medium, I took advantage of making two early surprise attacks, which seemed like they worked. I still lost this battle though. They was Protoss and in the end, they just build a bigger army than me, despite me attacking them first. I just seemed to not have anything to protect base in time.

I think I've nailed some of my mistakes though. I don't build enough Barracks, I sometimes just randomly click things to upgrade because I can :p, I very rarely make any early surprise attacks, I also seem to just attack until all my men are dead, rather than attack and retreat back to base to regroup and, I don't move out of my base to expand until it's often too late.

I've been learning to plant some of them mines near the ramp of my base, get starports built early on, and scout my enemy from an early stage but I still have a long long way to go before I beat the AI on Medium.


From my experience (limited as it is - I am not very good) of playing against Terran's on Ladder/AI, it is not necessarily the early scout but it is the initial push that decides a lot of my matches. Usually Marine/Marauder and depending on timing they may have a medivac or two early on can be a really good opening.

As I play as Protoss I generally try to get a scout out after I have 10 probes up and running and the gateway building.

Terran I think is easier as you have reapers that can come out pretty quick and provide you that valuable initial scout as well as getting those orbitals up and running for mule production.

A key thing with the scout I have found is trying to get that "Star-Sense" where you can see the potential tech choice your opponent is going for. This may mean sacrificing a unit to get that info but once you get that important info it should then help with your tech tree choices. (although make sure you try a follow up scout just in case it is a bluff)

As I said I am not that good (bronze league) but I am happy with the fact that little by little every season I am picking up where I am going wrong and trying new things out to be less predictable. If you haven't already done so watch games on Twitch and see how the pro's do it. I generally watch G-Finity,BaseTradeTv, WCS and DreamHack to see how the game is moving and picking up tips/tricks and seeing how to get the best out of the units.

I find as long as you are having fun then winning/losing doesn't really factor into things. Occasionally I will go on a mini run of say 5 - 6 wins but equally I will have times when I lose 5 -6 in a row.
 
Soldato
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Thanks, I'll check them out. What's your Battle tag? I'd be interested in getting my butt whooped a few times :D.

The only thing I find with watching the pro's, is you will try play how they do. The problem with this, is they are much better and know what they are doing. So you will often find yourself lagging behind them and never get out the same amount army like they do.
 
Soldato
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BN: JellyMaster feel free to add me and we can play a few games.

With the pro's it is more about seeing the general flow and thought processes as I know I will never hit the sort of apm's they have (remember they are practicing 10 - 12 hours a day)

But it is more about seeing how they are able to see possible counters to say a blink stalker all in or mass roach/muta push. I like watching when Rifkin and ZombieGrub play games on BaseTrade as they are more akin to the casual player style of play (although they are still way better than most)
 
Soldato
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I'll try catch a stream when they are on :)

How do you control the game? do you use the short cut keys? I haven't figured out these yet, but I do use the only short cut key Husky recommended. He says to always press A before sending out your team, so they will auto attack anything in sight.

Can I also do anything about the faster units sprinting ahead of the rest when I give them move orders? If they reach enemy base first, chances of them going down before my other units arrive are pretty high.
 
Soldato
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I generally use shortcut keys for the most part and also set up control groups.

I generally have the following set up during the game:

Hot Key 1: Nexus (usually all of them in one group to help with probe production)
Hot Key 2: Probe
Hot Key 3: Probe (Early on then first attack group)
Hot Key 4: Gateway (until Warp gate tech researched) then Robo or star gates
Hot Key 5: Second Attack Group
Hot Key 6 - 9: Nexus (changed as and when I need something else)

Controlling units will be easier with setting up groups and then you can send them out at different times/ control them better. I still find this a challenge especially in a large/ rapid battle. Although I am still guilty of using the F2 a lot for large engagements. :)
 
Associate
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I know this thread isn't that active but I figured I'd ask here what you guys think about the LotV beta so far? Are you guys enjoying it, do you think it will be a worthy improvement over HotS? etc

From my perspective as a terran player, i'm not too convinced. Zerg seems to have got the most fun stuff while terran bio has been made weaker so I feel kinda forced to go mech. And protoss players don't seem to exist in the beta at all lol
 
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