StarCraft II Beta

[Malakili]

the games are so fast paced that the guy who went Muta's game was OVER long before he knew it.

Yeah, this is a better way of putting it than I did.

[trias_e]

I have the worst brain farts in this game.  Here's some of the ways I've managed to lose games recently:

-Managed to make my worker waypoint at the gas.  It doesn't tell you there are idle workers so I didn't notice for like 5 minutes that I had 11 drones going into 1 gas.

-Mishit a key and ruined my hotkeyed army, so I ended up sending some drones out along side my other forces which I didn't notice until they were halfway there.

-Hit the overlord key instead of the zergling key early game.  3 overlords popping out will really help against that early zealot pressure!

-Most recent, in a 2v2 w/ bhodi (sorry again), turning my zerglings into banelings right infront of the opposing force.  I was retardedly desperately spamming the hotkey so they would go up asap (the nest was in the process of building) without paying attention to where my zerglings actually were at the time in terms of the fight.

The nice thing about 1v1 is I can just laugh about how dumb I am, but I feel really bad in 2v2 when I do stupid shit.  Anyways, 2v2 with me at your own risk, I'm probably gonna fuck up really badly in stupid ways often.

[Wolf]

"-Managed to make my worker waypoint at the gas.  It doesn't tell you there are idle workers so I didn't notice for like 5 minutes that I had 11 drones going into 1 gas."

I've done that in a custom :) DUDE WTF? WHY DONT I HAVE ANY MINERALS I MADE A MILLION DRONES?

[Ironwood]

Just got Sentry rushed.

Good God, that took me back.  It's towers all over again.

Two zerg versus two protoss.  Not sure WHAT the fuck we were supposed to do against that...

[Lakov_Sanite]

Reading this this thread has sucked all my interest out of starcraft.

[ezrast]

I got an email that said they were giving me an additional key to share with a friend. Funny thing is, I never signed up for the beta, and the email had two keys, although it was written as if there were only one. So, I used one of them on my own battle.net account and have one left to give out if anyone wants. Very odd. It's legit though, SC2 is on my battle.net games page and everything now.

Is there any place to download the client directly? My network blocks torrents, which also kills the Blizzard Downloader.

[Musashi]

ME!

[trias_e]

"-Managed to make my worker waypoint at the gas.  It doesn't tell you there are idle workers so I didn't notice for like 5 minutes that I had 11 drones going into 1 gas."

I've done that in a custom :) DUDE WTF? WHY DONT I HAVE ANY MINERALS I MADE A MILLION DRONES?

Yeah, very much not cool especially for us unobservant types.  Which is me.  Shit I'm busy enough with everything else in the game, I can't be arsed to actually check whether or not my drones are mining.

New one that just happened:  replacing zergling main army group with queen.  queen goes halfway across map, lings all die.  lool.  (sorry bhodi again)

[trias_e]

Just got Sentry rushed.

Good God, that took me back.  It's towers all over again.

Two zerg versus two protoss.  Not sure WHAT the fuck we were supposed to do against that...

I'm kind of curious as to how this worked, can you link the replay or explain the timing?

Reading this this thread has sucked all my interest out of starcraft.

Don't let my posts discourage you, most people don't have the problems I have with this game in terms of botched control and awful fuck-ups.  I'm.....special.  That said it is certainly a brutal, fast, and unforgiving game.

[lamaros]

I got an email that said they were giving me an additional key to share with a friend. Funny thing is, I never signed up for the beta, and the email had two keys, although it was written as if there were only one. So, I used one of them on my own battle.net account and have one left to give out if anyone wants. Very odd. It's legit though, SC2 is on my battle.net games page and everything now.

Is there any place to download the client directly? My network blocks torrents, which also kills the Blizzard Downloader.

Turn off P2P in the Blizzard downloader and it will DL from http.

[Malakili]

Two zerg versus two protoss.  Not sure WHAT the fuck we were supposed to do against that...

'ling muta

[Lakov_Sanite]

No, the game itself has nothing to do with my lack of interest.  You guys remember when street fighter was a fun game, when you played with your friends on a weekend?  Now, fast forward to going into an arcade and playing against a guy who knew how to use zangief down to the exact pixel range of every move. 

Starcraft looks like it could be a fun game but the depth to which people in just this thread alone take it, makes me believe I will never enjoy it because I know I am not willing to portion out a sufficient amount of time or brain space to play it on even close to a competitive level.

[Musashi]

a guy who knew how to use zangief down to the exact pixel range of every move. 

My fucking friend Jeff.  Fuck Zangief.

[lamaros]

Do you not enjoy running because you've watched athletics at the olympics? Not enjoy playing any professional sport with friends, because you know there are professionals who do it better?

Huh? You know you can just play against others like yourself, right?

[Malakili]

No, the game itself has nothing to do with my lack of interest.  You guys remember when street fighter was a fun game, when you played with your friends on a weekend?  Now, fast forward to going into an arcade and playing against a guy who knew how to use zangief down to the exact pixel range of every move. 

Starcraft looks like it could be a fun game but the depth to which people in just this thread alone take it, makes me believe I will never enjoy it because I know I am not willing to portion out a sufficient amount of time or brain space to play it on even close to a competitive level.

Consider yourself lucky.  I feel like I'm in some kind of competitive play puragatory, between being bad enough that I just don't care anymore, and caring enough to get real good.  Instead, I'm just totally inconsistent, sometimes I make brilliant plays, and sometimes I get stomped into the ground.  This is much more frustrating than simply getting beaten over and over and over, because now i know I CAN play well, but its supremely frustrating to know that you can play well, but can't play well all the time.

[Ironwood]

The 2v2 map with the one ramp in.  two protoss drones ran in and put down pylons.  Clearly already having a forge, they then put down Sentry Guns.

At this point, my companian has his thumb jammed firmly up his arse with TWO Vespenes and, frankly, I've just built my Spawning Pool.

By the time 4 Zerglings got out there were FOUR shielded cannons.

We were by.

That map sucks for Zerg :  you can't get it protected quick enough, I've decided.

[NowhereMan]

Starcraft looks like it could be a fun game but the depth to which people in just this thread alone take it, makes me believe I will never enjoy it because I know I am not willing to portion out a sufficient amount of time or brain space to play it on even close to a competitive level.

If the ranking system works this is pretty much what you can do. Basically if you're getting ranked in copper you're probably going to be up against a combination of people who just want some relaxed fun and those who just suck at the game. Of course if your problem is you need to actually know build orders, etc. to avoid just getting rushed every time 5 minutes in then, yeah, the game seems to be brutish and short (based on what I've read, since I'm not actually in the beta) but there'll also be a crapload of custom maps and games out not long after release that will cater more towards what you want. Or just play co-op versus the computer. Competitive SCII is not going to be the only multiplayer option, I spent a long time playing SC multi but never got into competitive matches. There were more than enough other options to keep me entertained for a good few months.

[Ironwood]

The Insane AI on Warcraft 3 gives you an utter kicking, especially if there's five of them in a free for all.


I'm quite confident that if I get sick of other people, I can still blow shit up for fun.

[Rasix]

Starcraft looks like it could be a fun game but the depth to which people in just this thread alone take it, makes me believe I will never enjoy it because I know I am not willing to portion out a sufficient amount of time or brain space to play it on even close to a competitive level.

If the ranking system works this is pretty much what you can do. Basically if you're getting ranked in copper you're probably going to be up against a combination of people who just want some relaxed fun and those who just suck at the game. Of course if your problem is you need to actually know build orders, etc. to avoid just getting rushed every time 5 minutes in then, yeah, the game seems to be brutish and short (based on what I've read, since I'm not actually in the beta) but there'll also be a crapload of custom maps and games out not long after release that will cater more towards what you want. Or just play co-op versus the computer. Competitive SCII is not going to be the only multiplayer option, I spent a long time playing SC multi but never got into competitive matches. There were more than enough other options to keep me entertained for a good few months.

As the only person here that will admit they got placed in copper (I'm usually ranked 10-16 in my division) here's how it goes for me:

My wins are mostly against total noobs or people with their heads firmly entrenched in their asses.   Guys that will have 4 lings by the time I have 8 marauders.  People that are probably just new or bad at games in general.  No real thrill beating these folks, but at least a sense of relief that I didn't get crushed again.

My loses are a combination of placement matches and from what I've seen people ranked firmly higher than I am. Silver players and such.  I could beat some of these people if I had any fucking clue about mid game build ups or pushes.  Late game I simply can't hang because my opponent will manage to build a huge army while I barely manage to hold of their harasses. I could work on this and I could get better and beat some of these people.

Early signs I know I'm going to lose:  a) Guy is micro'ing his probe.  b) Guy says "gl hf" at the beginning.  Yeah, you played SC. I'm toast. c)  Guy says "hey, let's not rush, ok".  TRAP.

Actual copper player strats seem to boil down to zealot rush, ray cheese, ling rush, mass roach, or mass air turtle terran. Every once in a blue moon you'll get a really bad marauder early harass.

Could I be content with SC2 multi hanging around copper?  I'm not sure.  Beating terribads and getting crushed by people not in my division seems a bit unsustainable.  I've gotten so few competitive matches so far.  I know what I do wrong, I know how I could get better, I understand what people do in the replays: I can't execute any of it.  

[Malakili]

As the only person here that will admit they got placed in copper (I'm usually ranked 10-16 in my division) here's how it goes for me:

My wins are mostly against total noobs or people with their heads firmly entrenched in their asses.   Guys that will have 4 lings by the time I have 8 marauders.  People that are probably just new or bad at games in general.  No real thrill beating these folks, but at least a sense of relief that I didn't get crushed again.

My loses are a combination of placement matches and from what I've seen people ranked firmly higher than I am. Silver players and such.  I could beat some of these people if I had any fucking clue about mid game build ups or pushes.  Late game I simply can't hang because my opponent will manage to build a huge army while I barely manage to hold of their harasses. I could work on this and I could get better and beat some of these people.

Early signs I know I'm going to lose:  a) Guy is micro'ing his probe.  b) Guy says "gl hf" at the beginning.  Yeah, you played SC. I'm toast. c)  Guy says "hey, let's not rush, ok".  TRAP.

Actual copper player strats seem to boil down to zealot rush, ray cheese, ling rush, mass roach, or mass air turtle terran. Every once in a blue moon you'll get a really bad marauder early harass.

Could I be content with SC2 multi hanging around copper?  I'm not sure.  Beating terribads and getting crushed by people not in my division seems a bit unsustainable.  I've gotten so few competitive matches so far.  I know what I do wrong, I know how I could get better, I understand what people do in the replays: I can't execute any of it.  

This was basically the exact same experience I had when I started, and it took a lot of watching replays to get past it.  Though to be honest, even though I subsequently got placed in bronze, then gold (somehow, i don't think i'm gold level), most of my games are STILL like this.    In fact, I discussed it earlier in the thread as my main problem with SC2 multiplayer, and it even spawned a thread about "Knowing too soon that its over" in the Game Dev forum.  Basically, I find that very few of my matches are actually competitive.  Either I win handily, or lose handily, and that really isn't all that exciting, even if it does make the match maker look balanced because I have similar amounts of wins and losses.

[Der Helm]

As the only person here that will admit they got placed in copper (I'm usually ranked 10-16 in my division) here's how it goes for me:

My wins are mostly against total noobs or people with their heads firmly entrenched in their asses.   Guys that will have 4 lings by the time I have 8 marauders.  People that are probably just new or bad at games in general.  No real thrill beating these folks, but at least a sense of relief that I didn't get crushed again.

Early signs I know I'm going to lose:  a) Guy is micro'ing his probe.  b) Guy says "gl hf" at the beginning.  Yeah, you played SC. I'm toast. c)  Guy says "hey, let's not rush, ok".  TRAP.

Actual copper player strats seem to boil down to zealot rush, ray cheese, ling rush, mass roach, or mass air turtle terran. Every once in a blue moon you'll get a really bad marauder early harass.

Heh. I got placed in copper too. Still trying to fight my way out of it, but I only have time for 1 or 2 games per day.

I agree with your other points... "gl hf", a microed probe in my base and the game is over in 5 minutes. 

[AcidCat]

It took less than a week of playing for me to realize that I have neither the time nor the inclination to learn this game well enough to play at any kind of competitive level. In maybe 15 games or so I didn't get a single win. I'll just be sticking with the campaign and maybe some skirmishes vs. the AI.

[Fordel]

My biggest hurdle is just the speed, as in the actual game speed defaulting to "Faster" for any kind of ladder match. If I set the speed to "Normal" in a custom game, then I'm okay, but when it's set to max I can't keep up.

[Merusk]

It took less than a week of playing for me to realize that I have neither the time nor the inclination to learn this game well enough to play at any kind of competitive level. In maybe 15 games or so I didn't get a single win. I'll just be sticking with the campaign and maybe some skirmishes vs. the AI.

I learned that shit years ago.  Welcome to my world, just wait until both expansions are out and buy the Battle Chest for $40 in 4 years instead of $120+ over the next 4.

[Phry]

Wow i just beat someone and made them nerdrage, i need to keep some popcorn nearby.  A couple darktemplar pretty much destroyed his giant army :)

[Der Helm]

Wow i just beat someone and made them nerdrage, i need to keep some popcorn nearby.  A couple darktemplar pretty much destroyed his giant army :)

I love it when I pull something like that off.

Usually my oponent quits the second he realises I am killing his workers and he has no stealth detection. I know I do when it happens to me. 

Yesterday I fought a Terran player who rushed Thors, I had 2 Dark Templars poping out just as his huge Ass mechs arrived, they kept killing his huge mechs and supporting drones/marines. He kept sending them in groups of 3-4 untill I did send a single Dark Templar into his base. I don't think he ever understood why he lost.

[Margalis]

The 2v2 map with the one ramp in.  two protoss drones ran in and put down pylons.  Clearly already having a forge, they then put down Sentry Guns.

At this point, my companian has his thumb jammed firmly up his arse with TWO Vespenes and, frankly, I've just built my Spawning Pool.

By the time 4 Zerglings got out there were FOUR shielded cannons.

We were by.

That map sucks for Zerg :  you can't get it protected quick enough, I've decided.

Two suggestions:

1. Create some spine crawlers, create a creep tumor, then move the spine crawlers close enough to the towers to either destroy them or at least prevent your opponents from building more towers closer in. Also you can use the queen transfusion to make sure your spine crawlers stay alive while rooting.

2. Create a bunch of zerglings, research zergling speed, run by the cannons into their bases and kill all their workers.

On that map you have a main and a natural inside your ramp, there's no immediate need to deal with the cannons. You can wait for your partner to get siege tanks or Colossi (race depending).. As zerg nothing outranges cannons till broodlords so don't engage them unless you have a huge army, or better yet just bypass them. You could also try to nydus worm into their base.

If someone cannon rushes you but the cannons aren't close enough to hit workers or vital buildings the key is to remain calm and make sure they can't push any further. You don't have to try to immediately fight your way out. It definitely takes practice, cannon rushes used to own me for free, now most of the time I end up even or ahead unless it's against a vastly superior player who could beat me any other way.

[Ironwood]

All good ideas, but shit-for-brains had quit by that point.

[Wolf]

Just got a couple thousand keys in my mail. Who's still looking? :)

ps: dirty retailer is dirty

[Vaiti]

I could use a key.

[Ceryse]

Just got a couple thousand keys in my mail. Who's still looking? :)

ps: dirty retailer is dirty

You serious? I could use a key as well.

[Ironwood]

MOR FILTHY EUROS PLEASE.

[NowhereMan]

I too would appreciate a key, if there's one going.

[Tarami]

I would like a key too, if you happen to have one lying about.

[Thrawn]

Just got a couple thousand keys in my mail. Who's still looking? :)

ps: dirty retailer is dirty

  If you seriously got a LOT Of keys I would gladly take a few to give out to friends of mine that haven't gotten in yet.