Starcraft 2

[kfaess]

Did anyone play the original starcraft??

Starcraft 2 comes out on the 27th and when I get my hands on that game I'll prob blow my load, multiple times. This game is going to own my life for a solid week at least.

Anyway, just wondering if theres any other starcraft players that wanna play when the new one comes out.

[Donachello]

I played the shit out of the first. Probably going to hold off on getting 2 until I'm not working full time.

[kfaess]

whaaaat I don't even know how u have the willpower to do that.

If you've never heard of starcraft before, it's a real time strategy (RTS) game. People were still playing the first one until very recently even though it came out over ten years ago. Interestingly, many SC players also took up poker (e.g. Hevad Khan) for any of you who might want to give SC a try.

[wufwugy]

never played, never care to play in future, but quite enjoy watching the high level or professional matches. wish esports would catch on in the west

[BankItDrew]

My roommate is a professional poker player as well as a Diamond rank on SC. Apparently Diamond is good.

[luxurysbrandzw]

Hello! nice day!

[oskar]

Never really played, never liked it that much.
I did play some warcraft tho, which was alright. But all my friends who I play Battlefield BC2 and l4d with are talking about nothing else for the past 10 years so I'll have to get it. I hope it's really bad so we can go back to coop shooters.

[Icanhastreebet]

Never really played, never liked it that much.
I did play some warcraft tho, which was alright. But all my friends who I play Battlefield BC2 and l4d with are talking about nothing else for the past 10 years so I'll have to get it. I hope it's really bad so we can go back to coop shooters.

[ ] really bad, I've been playing the beta and once this game hits the shelves all the former SC players are going to be playing it like 12 hrs a day. $$$

[Imthenewfish]

sounds fun. what is it?

[oskar]

THE most popular RTS game... prolly still one of the most played even though it's about 10 years old.
There is no way you haven't come across it unless you're A: under 21, B: lived on the dark side of the moon in a cave with your hands around your head saying: lalalalalalala for the past 10 years.

Also national sport of Korea.

[spoonitnow]

Hello! nice day!

Post subject: devil wears prada shirtsarmani mens suits

whattheshit.jpg

[donkbee]

I'm not allowed to ever try it because I'm pretty sure I'd get really addicted and then never play another hand of poker ever again.

[ensign_lee]

It's SOOOO good. OMG.

Anybody from FTR is free to realID friend me. [email protected]

Diamond league, Protoss (or, at least I was in the Beta. )

[kfaess]

Nice looks like we have at least a few FTR players. I haven't played the beta but when the game comes out maybe we can organize an FTR tourny or FTR monthly matches or sumthin

[kfaess]

never played, never care to play in future, but quite enjoy watching the high level or professional matches. wish esports would catch on in the west

Yea HDstarcraft and huskystarcraft on youtube are/were doing great commentary of beta matches. They're pretty good at it and like you I wish esports would catch on as well.

[Lukie]

played sc1 wayyyyyyy wayyyyyy too much when I was younger, started playing again for a short time last year, hit C+ on iccup, then realized i was playing wayyyyyyy too much again so i dumped it.

ill pick up sc2 when it comes out but i'm not looking to spend nearly the amount of time on it this time around.

[wufwugy]

Yea HDstarcraft and huskystarcraft on youtube are/were doing great commentary of beta matches. They're pretty good at it and like you I wish esports would catch on as well.

Man I was watching those guys back when they only had like 50 subs, now they're at like 125k. I'm honestly very surprised because the highest sc1 were like on diggity or cholera at like 10k. I haven't been paying too much attention, but it looks like HD and Husky have been getting 'mainstream' sponsorships and such, and that's awesome because it's important for the development of esports. Only sports I care about are MMA and esports, but a big problem with esports is not having strong regular commentary from guys like Husky/HD. Looks like it's changing though, which is awesome. I mean it's because of excellent commentary of HD/Husky that I was able to get into sc1 matches in the first place because I never played nor care to play

The most recent dalailamer (vs whitera I think) on husky's channel is probably the best sc2 match so far. my favorite though were the match and rematch of idra/masq (i think it's on hd's but might be on husky's). idra is such a retard and I like seeing retards get owned

[a500lbgorilla]

I've already preorded a copy. I can understand how you might like starcraft 2 commentaries but how do you not want to buy the game? I'm even the second child who had to learn to appreciate video games by watching my brother and I can't understand being on the sidelines for this game. It's like chess but in space - against aliens.

I mean, pulling something out of your ass to win is awesome because you pulled it out of your ass; watching the before mentioned is just kind of pervy.

[wufwugy]

I've already preorded a copy. I can understand how you might like starcraft 2 commentaries but how do you not want to buy the game? I'm even the second child who had to learn to appreciate video games by watching my brother and I can't understand being on the sidelines for this game. It's like chess but in space - against aliens.

I mean, pulling something out of your ass to win is awesome because you pulled it out of your ass; watching the before mentioned is just kind of pervy.

I hate playing yet love watching competitive gaming. Competitive gaming feels like work to me, and I hate work. The only interest I have in playing RTS is single player. I like things that are moderately hard yet can be beaten with a little bit of time. When it comes to competitive gaming 500 hours is still nub, and I just don't like that.

I played like 200 hours of Counter Strike, yet had a kill:death ratio of like 1:5 (granted I played on a high-level server and purposely used the deagle as my main weapon most of the time). If I don't feel like I'm beating a game I'm playing, I go on crazy monkey life tilt. It's not that I'm a sore loser, quite the opposite, it's just that I don't compete in things I'm not inherently very good at.

OTOH, I very much enjoy watching high-level skillsets/competition, especially in video games. I adore the analytical/predictive process, and I've found that it's something I'm very good at, so I naturally enjoy it.

[Da GOAT]

never played it, anyone know what the pc specs will need to be for this. thinking of gettin a laptop.

[dneureiter]

I'm not allowed to ever try it because I'm pretty sure I'd get really addicted and then never play another hand of poker ever again.

My concern precisely... That said I think I'm going to get it. Heard alot of good things about it. And it'd be nice for entertainment when I'm not in the mood to play solid A game poker.

[boost]

never played it, anyone know what the pc specs will need to be for this. thinking of gettin a laptop.

the game scales rather well. It wont look terribly pretty, but its perfectly playable on the lower settings. I was playing the beta on my ~2 year old mid-low level gaming laptop, and it was fine when I turned most of the settings down to medium or low.

[jyms]

I torrented the first starcraft since I have never played. Having a good time so far. I really don't want to get involved in the second without some knowledge of the game. And it gives me something to do till the second one comes out.

Forgive my newbness, bu why was this game so much more popular than C&C, Age of Empires or Warcraft? (basically anything in the genre') I have only played a couple of hours so maybe I am not seeing the depths in the game yet.

[dranger7070]

I'm going to be buying a decent desktop in the fall hopefully, will probably pick this up to get owned by all you guys. I've never played SC1 or even seen it played. Given this thread it sounds interesting though.

[boost]

I torrented the first starcraft since I have never played. Having a good time so far. I really don't want to get involved in the second without some knowledge of the game. And it gives me something to do till the second one comes out.

Forgive my newbness, bu why was this game so much more popular than C&C, Age of Empires or Warcraft? (basically anything in the genre') I have only played a couple of hours so maybe I am not seeing the depths in the game yet.

nothing much distinguishes the single player from say C&C, they both are fun and have a humorous undertone. But the difference is the multiplayer. Blizzard took great pains to create three races that are fairly unique, yet well balanced. C&C on the other hand had very littler difference in the races, and the differences that there were, were not necessarily balanced.

Then after creating this fairly balanced set of races, Blizzard continued to support the multiplayer through patches. When new strategies emerged that exploited an unforeseen imbalance, Blizzard worked to correct this imbalance, then correct any imbalances that resulted from the first correction. This may not sound that impressive, but it is a TON of work to balance unique races and it is the reason that games are either unbalanced or each side is simply a copy of the others.

[kfaess]

nothing much distinguishes the single player from say C&C, they both are fun and have a humorous undertone. But the difference is the multiplayer. Blizzard took great pains to create three races that are fairly unique, yet well balanced. C&C on the other hand had very littler difference in the races, and the differences that there were, were not necessarily balanced.

Then after creating this fairly balanced set of races, Blizzard continued to support the multiplayer through patches. When new strategies emerged that exploited an unforeseen imbalance, Blizzard worked to correct this imbalance, then correct any imbalances that resulted from the first correction. This may not sound that impressive, but it is a TON of work to balance unique races and it is the reason that games are either unbalanced or each side is simply a copy of the others.

yea boost pretty much nails it with this post.

[Ragnar4]

I played SC 1 religiously, I've been in the beta, and got around 100 games in. I'm down for games. I'll hit you with my nametag when I have the game.

[boost]

p.s. I was in the beta, and I'll probably go ahead and buy the game when I get paid again. Not sure how much time Ill put into it, but I'd be down for a few games for sure.

[wufwugy]

WC3 is still very popular. Blizzard is looking to take the WC3 guys into SC2 though, I think. My guess is that WC3 never caught on in Korea because it's not as action packed as SC (and no zerg obv)

[Donachello]

Blizzard does not make bad games ever.

WC3 definitely did catch on in Korea to some extent as when I was playing it heavily the top guys on the ladder were almost exclusively Korean with the exception of a few euros like Grubby and one or two americans like Qazzi[CF]. But I agree that it didn't catch to the same extent that SC did probably due to the fact that WC3 never really balanced too well. After every patch there'd always be a new unplanned race-exclusive exploit that people would crush with for a few weeks or months. Also, WC3 didn't have nearly as much room for invention since each race essentially only had one good unit per tier.

Like wuf said too, no zerg

[eugmac]

Starcraft is a game I love but for the love of me can't get good at. Every now and again I reinstall it, go on B.net, join a random game titled "BGH NOOBS OMG" or something similar, and suffer a soul-crushing defeat, then suffer a few dozen more of those until I remember why I keep stopping playing this game.

[Lukie]

nothing much distinguishes the single player from say C&C, they both are fun and have a humorous undertone. But the difference is the multiplayer. Blizzard took great pains to create three races that are fairly unique, yet well balanced. C&C on the other hand had very littler difference in the races, and the differences that there were, were not necessarily balanced.

Then after creating this fairly balanced set of races, Blizzard continued to support the multiplayer through patches. When new strategies emerged that exploited an unforeseen imbalance, Blizzard worked to correct this imbalance, then correct any imbalances that resulted from the first correction. This may not sound that impressive, but it is a TON of work to balance unique races and it is the reason that games are either unbalanced or each side is simply a copy of the others.

I mostly agree with this, but a lot of what kept the game mostly balanced was outside of Blizzard's hands.

First, you may consider this irrelevant, but on the 'newb' maps like BGH, fastest, etc., protoss completely dominates.

Protoss dominated island maps like dire straits, but those died off a long time ago and never were very popular to begin with.

The pro scene has remained mostly balanced over the years for 3 big reasons, IMO:

1) blizzard updates/patches

2) new maps released by korean pro-leagues. it's hard to overstate the importance that map design has on the balance between races.

3) quarks in gameplay that were never intended or never forseen. for example, the muta stack bug, forge first fast expand in pvz, abusing peon AI mostly for defense, all sorts of stuff


Also I'd add that for much of the history of SC progaming, terran was mostly the dominant race (slayers boxer, nada, oov).

and that currently at lower levels all the way up to the competitive-ish level (like B on iccup), protoss takes the least skill, IMO.

[ensign_lee]

Starcraft is a game I love but for the love of me can't get good at. Every now and again I reinstall it, go on B.net, join a random game titled "BGH NOOBS OMG" or something similar, and suffer a soul-crushing defeat, then suffer a few dozen more of those until I remember why I keep stop playing this game.

With the new matchmaking system, you shouldn't have to worry about it. It's designed to only match you up with players of your skill.

Sure, there will be the occasional mismatch because of ranking volatility, but you should have much more balanced games in SCII where you only play against people of your level.

In other words, no soul crushing DIE NOOBS games.

[dranger7070]

Sounds like me and eugmac will be playing together

[caddie444]

Preordered today for tomorrow pick up haha. I was addicted to Starcraft 1 but I'm not that great at it. I'll most likely just be playing the campaigns and lookin forward to the amazing CG cut scenes.

Terrans FTW!

[BankItDrew]

So I went to the local electronics store tonight at midnight and zomg rofl rofl

First of all, I went there because I gave a friend of mine a lift, I don't play SC and never will

Secondly, when the employee came out to the long line and said "Sorry, we are now sold out, you can try our store on (insert street name here) on the other side of town" about 5 or 6 skinny asian dudes ran to their Civics and booked it out of the parking lot so fast.

I wish I yelled out in Jim Raynor's voice: "GO GO GO!"

[Sup3rM4N]

Picked it up midnight and played a few games tonight. This can be one addictive game. Platinum Zerg here incase anyone wants to play/practice matches. I especially need help against Ter

[Sup3rM4N]

I'm not allowed to ever try it because I'm pretty sure I'd get really addicted and then never play another hand of poker ever again.

-_- sigh i hope that will not b the case here

[ensign_lee]

Picked it up midnight and played a few games tonight. This can be one addictive game. Platinum Zerg here incase anyone wants to play/practice matches. I especially need help against Ter

*cough* eh he hem

It's SOOOO good. OMG.

Anybody from FTR is free to realID friend me. [email protected]

Diamond league, Protoss (or, at least I was in the Beta. )

[caddie444]

I don't play SC and never will...

I wish I yelled out in Jim Raynor's voice: "GO GO GO!"

Does not compute...

[Donachello]

Does not compute...

yeah... wat? Never played SC but knows Jim Raynor?

[ensign_lee]

ahahahaha BankItDrew got outed!!!

Also, for those of y'all who think your computer can't handle SCII, here are the minimum system specs (notice how very reasonable they are):

• Windows® XP/Windows Vista®/Windows® 7 (Updated with the latest Service Packs) with DirectX® 9.0c
• 2.6 GHz Pentium® IV or equivalent AMD Athlon® processor
• 128 MB PCIe NVIDIA® GeForce® 6600 GT or ATI Radeon® 9800 PRO video card or better
• 12 GB available HD space
• 1 GB RAM (1.5 GB required for Windows Vista®/Windows® 7 users)
• DVD-ROM drive
• Broadband Internet connection
• 1024X720 minimum display resolution

Oh, and for recommended system specs:

• Windows Vista®/Windows® 7
• Dual Core 2.4Ghz Processor
• 2 GB RAM
• 512 MB NVIDIA® GeForce® 8800 GTX or ATI Radeon® HD 3870 or better

it's really not that bad.

[BankItDrew]

Roomie talks about the game all the time.
The GOGOGO joke was his idea.
I see and hear him playing it every day.
etc etc

Also, I googled the starcraft cast to find out the name of the guy who says that.

So, memory + research = pseudo intellect

[ensign_lee]

Also, FYI, Jim Raynor doesn't say "GO GO GO".

That's the generic starcraft I marine.

[BankItDrew]

See? I know nothing of this SC.

[ensign_lee]

I think all this proves is that bankitdrew's internet spider is broken.

stupid bots.

[WildBobAA]

I just ordered a new PC, it's main purpose of existing will be to allow me to play SC2.

[ensign_lee]

Just finished the single player.

Should I start a new thread with the spoilers where we can discuss? Or is this thread okay?

Also, for those of you who haven't added me yet using RealID, here's my bnet ID:

ensignlee.315

[Donachello]

Watched my friend play a couple games last night. Then I stepped up to the plate and played 3. First time playing SC in probably 5 years or more. Took a while to get used to the building hot keys but the rest of it felt pretty good and warcraft 3-esque in terms of controlling stuff. Needless to say, playing in practice matchmaking I went 3-0 with 3 rush wins in 1v1. Protoss is still my favorite with Zerg as a close second. For Terran it seems like it's still all about defense first. I really like the marauder/medvac combo as well as the new Helion units with the burning upgrade.

Probably not going to buy it til I go back to school otherwise I'll never go to sleep.

[oskar]

For Terran it seems like it's still all about defense first.

We did some sweet terran rushes 2v2 and 3v3 where terran would push the jetpack units first and we built his defense. Once he has 4 of them he comes around the back of the bases and kills their economy.
I started playing protos cuz I love the huge fucking spidery things. But I guess I have to go zerg for teamplay. - we're protos, protos, terran.

Also tried to tower rush twice with protos. Won both matches right there

[boost]

don't reaper rush.. its cheese. Don't get me wrong.. I'm not some cry baby who thinks cheese is morally wrong. However cheesing keeps your skill level stagnant. Cheese is pretty easy to counter, and when its countered you, the cheeser, are set back quite a bit. So it pretty much only works when newb crushing people below your skill level.

[oskar]

I haven't played this game in a decade. I have no freakin clue about tactics. I don't know what half of the units do. The only thing I've found out so far is that the big fucking protos spidery thingies can be attacked by air to air, so I now send them out with air support. That's my progress in a nutshell.

What about building gas extractors at the enemies base? Is that cheese as well?
We tried it once, and I think it's pretty damn annoying.

lol I'm looking for zerg builds cuz I'm just completely lost with what does what, so I found this:
YouTube - StarCraft 2 - Zerg 10 Pool Rush ZvP w/ commentary - just keep watching...

[WildBobAA]

omg at that video

Serious question though b/c I haven't played the game yet, was the opponent hacking or what?

[boost]

oskar, I feel you. Like I said, I'm not saying you're some bad person for cheesing, its just that you won't progress. Building an extractor at the enemies base is cheese I guess.. The thing is.. cheese isn't neccesarrily all bad.. it has its place.. but reaper rushing game in and game out will get you nowhere and it will make the game boring fast.

[boost]

omg at that video

Serious question though b/c I haven't played the game yet, was the opponent hacking or what?

its two videos spliced together. One where hes finding a game, then once the game loads the second video is spliced in and its actually a UMS map (custom map made with the map editor).. in fact this probably isnt even multiplayer, but just single player.

[ensign_lee]

No, gas stealing (building an extractor at the enemy base) is NOT cheese.

Why? Because cheese is basically an early game all in. If you fail, you are going to be SOOOO far behind, you're going to lose like 90% of the time.

Now, ask yourself. If you steal 1 (or even both) of your opponent's geysers, delaying his gas and costing you 75/150 minerals, are you going to pretty much auto-loose?

No. Gas stealing is HARASSMENT. Depending on what your opponent is doing it could screw him up severely...or not at all. I usually gas steal protoss because I know that toss are hugely gas heavy and delaying it by even a minute in teh game (the time it takes to take down your extractors/assimilators) will strongly screw the other person up, no matter what strategy he's going as toss pretty much.

[oskar]

If that what cheese means, that's not what we're doing. We're just trying to slow their economy down.

[boost]

If that what cheese means, that's not what we're doing. We still keep producing other stuff. We're not going for a 2min. victory, we're just bringing their economy down. If you can kill just a couple of wbf's early, he'll be miles behind for the rest of the game.

The price of getting reapers out early is quite steep. To do it properly you HAVE to sacrifice your economy early on. Otherwise it wont work, or you are just playing against some abysmally bad players.


and ya, ensign I agree with your definition of cheese. Good points.

[oskar]

But you have a good chance of hurting their economy way more... and if it's 3v3 your teammates can build protection for you and pump you with supplies to get you back up.

[Donachello]

We did some sweet terran rushes 2v2 and 3v3 where terran would push the jetpack units first and we built his defense. Once he has 4 of them he comes around the back of the bases and kills their economy.
I started playing protos cuz I love the huge fucking spidery things. But I guess I have to go zerg for teamplay. - we're protos, protos, terran.

Also tried to tower rush twice with protos. Won both matches right there

Yeah I tried cannon rushing and did it poorly but it still worked since I pumped out zealots as well.

[ensign_lee]

But you have a good chance of hurting their economy way more... and if it's 3v3 your teammates can build protection for you and pump you with supplies to get you back up.

In order to get your reapers out so quickly that you damage their economy irreparably (7 barracks, followed by refinery, followed by tech lab), then you will cripple your economy so much that you will almost certainly auto-lose to your opponent's superior macro.

[oskar]

Even 3v3?
I'd be interested how you would counter it because even before they get units to the back of their base to save the wbf's and whatnot the reapers are gone.
Obviously if you can do more damage to them than it does to you, you should come out ahead. So far I don't think anyone has successfully countered it.

I did the cannon rush thing twice. also 3v3. I think I sent the first probe out when I started building the forge. Then I built the first pylon almost one screen lengh away from the edge of their base and then slowly built forward. Once the first pylon is done, the forge should be completed. Meanwhile my teammates transfer me some minerals so I can start pushing colossus asap while the other protos pumps phoenix for defense.
I'm starting to play zerg now because the way we play now we're pretty screwed if the other team successfully techs to air early.

[ensign_lee]

Obviously, if your cheese works, you won't lose.

I'm just pointing out that fast, fast reapers (when I say fast, I mean 7 rax, not delayed reapers) is cheese because if you don't succed, you pretty much auto-lose.

Cutting SCV production in order to get a rax at 7 supply (that's what I mean by 7 barracks) will severely cripple your economy. Think of it is self inflicted collateral damage.

[dsmrolla06]

I bought the game at midnight of launch, i figured there'd be some players from ftr. I havent played the first one in probably 9 years, and im way more terrible than I thought Id be. Im down to play with some people from ftr though, just message me cause I really dont want to give out my email address to the whole world.

[boost]

oskar, its actually super easy to counter. Its a tiny bit harder with zerg and toss since your tier 1 units are melee. But I pretty much stick to terran, and you simply set your rax waypoint to your mineral field until a few rines get there. When you account for travel time, theres no way your reapers beat the villains rines to his minerals.

For zerg if you just have groups of 2 or 3 lings positioned behind your minerals you'll be fine... same thing with zealots. Even with strong micro, the cheese is never worth the economy hit when you face a semi competent villain.

[Roco415]

any one have a link for torrent/crack?

[oskar]

pointless cuz you won't be able to play over battlenet.

Ok I figured out how to counter a reaper rush with zerg all by myself
But wtf do I do against Thors? I had a single Thor bring down half a dozen metalisks as well as masses of hydralisks and roaches. What gives? How do I counter those fuckers? Especially with air support.

[dsmrolla06]

Apparently you can add people by character codes. My character name is caminator, code is 887 if anyone wants to add me.

You could try banelings oskar.

[Roco415]

only want to play the campaign for now, havnt played in over 5-6 years....

[speedcake]

buy the game, you fucking bum

[kfaess]

My comp is an old pos and I can't run this game (( Gonna have to wait about a month till I get my new desktop

[Monsieur_chat]

Never played the first game (though was not unaware of it ldo). Am quite up for purchasing SC2 as it looks awesome. Can anyone suggest some good resources for a complete noob? Or will playing through the single player do the trick?

[oskar]

You'll get it. Singleplayer helps, or so I'm told. I did well just jumping right into multiplayer.


Idk wtf is up with Zerg. I've played Zerg more than Protos, and I still can't get the build cues right. I got the handover down to a second from unit limit to pylon completes to building the next unit with protos for the first 8 minutes. I can't get that right for 3 minutes with Zerg... and feel like I need two more expensions just for gas within 10 minutes.
We're doing fine with toss/toss/terra, so I'll just stick with that.


btw we played against a team of 3 who zergrush within 2 minutes. neither of them builds drones. They just wait until they can get a pool, and then build three zerglings each and attack with those and the drones. I guess you need to send the WBFs and probes after them and hope for the best. I can't imagine it would be advisable to try and outbuild them on the offchance they'll do that.

[ensign_lee]

teamliquid is like the ftr of starcraft2. If you're looking for a resource, you won't do better than that.

As far as zerg, if you're new to SC2, I wouldn't recommend zerg. Why? Because they're *easily* the hardest race to master. This is because of their larvae mechanic. It's basically a third resource you have to manage, and it's really difficult in the early game. Do you use these larvae to produce drones? If so, your standing army will be much smaller. Do you use those larvae to produce troops? If so, and you don't use them to attack or anything (successfully), you've basically hurt your economy going into the future since those larvae could have been drones, helping you gather more resources.

Also, for the zerg counter to Thors: try ultras. DO NOT TRY MUTAS. Thors hard counter mutas so much it's laughable. Area of effect attack against light air units = muta death. Or, if you want to go the cheap route (and the Thors don't have support units), use shit tons of lings. Cost for cost, the lings are super effective vs Thors because lots of the Thor damage will be wasted.

[oskar]

zomg teamliquid is awesome! I'll bug those guys over there tyvm!