StarCraft II Beta

[Fordel]

Regarding TvP, day9 reviews an absolutely brutal mass marine+early ghost strat:

http://day9tv.blip.tv/file/3752216/


Basically, barracks+tech lab then barracks+reactor, then ghost academy, tech for shield+stim, factory+starport, pump out mass medivac and attack when stim's done. Seems to be incredibly effective against a majority of protoss strats; marines murder stalkers, you can wall up for DT, are OK against void ray, and the timing push happens before colossi.

It's good enough that I'd expect it to be the flavor of the month, at least for a while.

I do sort of wonder how it'd be against chargelots/sentries, though I don't go that anymore since they nerfed sentry damage.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again, there is no problem 50 marines can't solve 

[Malakili]

It's also pretty much the only legitimate way to play ZvZ  : /

You can try to go roaches, but well played lings will overwhelm at the critical stage, and then 2 banelings to the workers = death.

I am almost into diamond after months of flirting with it!  Squeee!  My new favorite build for zerg is ling->infestor->ultra.  It's pretty nasty, I like to get an early +1 for the lings attack, which helps with the ultras end game.  Infestors are pretty great against all sorts of midgame pushes.

This is true after a certain skill level, however if you aren't efficient enough and don't get your banelings up in that critical window it'll lose to Roaches.  In most lower level zerg games banelings aren't especially viable assuming similarly skilled (or unskilled as it were) players.  I learned this the hard way when I tried playing again, and it was one of the things that made me realize just how bad I was.

[Fordel]

http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=136495

Someone wrote a little data mining thing and got some stats for people to pick over on win/loss and etc.



From what is presented, things look pretty darn even.

[Ironwood]

Burrowed Banelings make an awesome deathtrap though.

 

[K9]

I am almost into diamond after months of flirting with it!  Squeee!  My new favorite build for zerg is ling->infestor->ultra.  It's pretty nasty, I like to get an early +1 for the lings attack, which helps with the ultras end game.  Infestors are pretty great against all sorts of midgame pushes.

Isn't that pretty much gg if you face any sort of air?

[Malakili]

I am almost into diamond after months of flirting with it!  Squeee!  My new favorite build for zerg is ling->infestor->ultra.  It's pretty nasty, I like to get an early +1 for the lings attack, which helps with the ultras end game.  Infestors are pretty great against all sorts of midgame pushes.

Isn't that pretty much gg if you face any sort of air?

Queens!

[trias_e]

I am almost into diamond after months of flirting with it!  Squeee!  My new favorite build for zerg is ling->infestor->ultra.  It's pretty nasty, I like to get an early +1 for the lings attack, which helps with the ultras end game.  Infestors are pretty great against all sorts of midgame pushes.

Isn't that pretty much gg if you face any sort of air?

Since ling/infestor is very light on the minerals, I can afford to build extra queens.  I try to spread creep all the time so I don't mind having three queens off of two bases anyways regardless of air (and the second I see air I can build two more queens at both hatcheries).  And since I have an evo chamber pretty quick I can build spore crawlers if I have to.

If they push hardcore air, I'll just build some hydras (hydra den has a fast build time), and then with well placed fungal growths against the opposing air units in combination with the hydras...  

[Ironwood]

My video card seems to be getting tanned by this game, with occasional lockups.

Anyone else ?

[Rasix]

No lockups, but it definitely gets a workout.  It especially doesn't seem to like the menus.

[Ironwood]

I think it totally hates alt-tabbing.

Windowed mode now.

[K9]

I periodically get some sort of spasm where it seems like I alt-tabbed and then jumps back and forth from the game to the desktop in an unresponsive fashion, then it crashes. Happens rarely thankfully.

[Ironwood]

Yes.  That.

[K9]

Beta ends tomorrow

We would like to thank everyone who has participated in the StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty beta test. You've done an admirable job of testing, and we greatly appreciate all of the feedback you provided during this critical phase of development. It's been a lot of fun; however, all good things must come to an end.

In preparation for the launch of the game on Tuesday, July 27, the beta servers will be brought offline by Monday, July 19. At that time, all beta accounts and character information will be reset and the ability to create forum posts and comments on the StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty website (http://beta-us.battle.net/sc2/en/) will be unavailable until launch. In the meantime, we still encourage everyone to stay tuned to the website for exciting news and updates regarding the upcoming release.

Thank you again for your participation, and we'll see you soon on Battle.net!

[dd0029]

And I get a Beta invite first thing this morning right as it closes down. 

[Malakili]

I, for one, and happy that I got into beta, or else I might be tempted to buy the game and end up wasting my money

I think Blizzard's days of making games I care about are coming to an end, this will be literally the very first game they've made since Warcraft that I haven't purchased.  To be fair, I guess thats a pretty good run, but they've just gotten too big for their britches.

[K9]

I had a lot of fun in Beta, I never played on Battle net before, preferring to dick around with friends and housemates over our LAN, but now I'm a convert.

I'm also very excited for the single player. For all the things you may dislike about Blizzard, you cannot fault them for running a good Beta, and for testing a game that is so much more polished than the majority of releases. Whether or not you like the game is debatable, but the quality of the game isn't in any doubt.

[Malakili]

I had a lot of fun in Beta, I never played on Battle net before, preferring to dick around with friends and housemates over our LAN, but now I'm a convert.

I'm also very excited for the single player. For all the things you may dislike about Blizzard, you cannot fault them for running a good Beta, and for testing a game that is so much more polished than the majority of releases. Whether or not you like the game is debatable, but the quality of the game isn't in any doubt.

Yeah, the game is great for RTS fans above a certain skill level, no doubt. I'm not one of them, and I'm not paying 50 bucks for a single player game and an opportunity to dick around with custom maps.  Its certainly well polished, and I even admit that i like to WATCH high level games of Starcraft being played, but its kind of the same reason I like the NBA slam dunk contest even though I can't dunk myself.

[Paelos]

I plan on getting it for the single player experience, and then maybe playing a small amount of multiplayer that I full expect to suck horribly at. I hear people talk about gold, silver, or bronze rankings, and I figure I'll be in the Turd Category.

[Mosesandstick]

I'm going to way for the actual game to come out. I don't think I'll play seriously. I was getting better, but it's just a bit too much work. I mainly want to play with friends and b.net as it stands just doesn't impress.

[Malakili]

I plan on getting it for the single player experience, and then maybe playing a small amount of multiplayer that I full expect to suck horribly at. I hear people talk about gold, silver, or bronze rankings, and I figure I'll be in the Turd Category.

Yeah, the real problem is that even the bronze category has lots of people that are way better than you'd expect beginners/casual players to be.  In beta I was constantly falling behind on my macro, and generally whoever is better at that is going to win those lower level games because most players aren't good enough at micro to win or draw a battle in which they have an inferior army.  Thats just a pure actions per minute issue too, people always say "APM isn't important, people with high APM just spam a lot" that might be true sometimes, but it matters, and it matter in a major way.  That doesn't mean 200APM will always beat 100APM, but there is a certain minimum that you need (i think probably in the 60-75 range) that you need to be able to have much of a chance on the latter in most games.

[Rasix]

If anyone one wants a semi-turd level person to play/practice with, I'll be buying at launch.   I ended up about rank 20-30 gold and won't get better until I improve my mechanics some.  Still made it that far after not playing a RTS competitively in over 10 years.  I barely remember to hotkey attack groups and my APM is like 30.  

There's definitely a place for the unskilled turds, you just have to be semi-comfortable there.

Edit: Some of the newer Terran cheese is just retarded.  It's incredibly easy to pull off and not trivial to counter.  6 rax marine all-in.  It'll get 30+ marines to your opponents base at like the 6 minute mark. 

[NowhereMan]

I'm probably going to get this for the single player and I also expect there to be some fun custom maps out that should keep me entertained multi-player wise. I don't think I'm going to do much in competitive play, although I remember having fun with co-op vs. AI so maybe that too.

[Rendakor]

I'm probably going to get this for the single player and I also expect there to be some fun custom maps out that should keep me entertained multi-player wise. I don't think I'm going to do much in competitive play, although I remember having fun with co-op vs. AI so maybe that too.

This. Playing competitively is just too stressful and intense for my tastes, but I had enough fun in SC and WC3 on custom maps that it'll be worth the purchase, assuming they don't end up costing too much.

[Malakili]

I'm probably going to get this for the single player and I also expect there to be some fun custom maps out that should keep me entertained multi-player wise. I don't think I'm going to do much in competitive play, although I remember having fun with co-op vs. AI so maybe that too.

This. Playing competitively is just too stressful and intense for my tastes, but I had enough fun in SC and WC3 on custom maps that it'll be worth the purchase, assuming they don't end up costing too much.

My problem is that I like playing competitive in general but the barrier for entry for that kind of play in SC just seems to high to me.

[sinij]

SC2 ladder community been practicing since SC1 came out, don't expect to be competitive for a very long time while you are playing catch-up.  This doesn't necessary means you will get crushed every time.

 Betas attract enthusiast segment, anyone who was interested in competing on the ladder got invite or pre-ordered their way into it. You have to keep in mind that way SC2 adder work, 90%+ of current beta testers will end up in Plat division and up, so as a truly new player you will not encounter this type of competition unless someone is smurfing. The only reason Bronze is so competitive is because relatively small number of participants and low number of games played. Placement matches is a guess, that often is down to luck, it takes 20+ games to correctly place you in a division. Five Diamond players playing placement matches against each-other and you will have one of them ending in Bronze.


Here are suggestions for new players:

1. Don't play Zerg race, too complex to be used by a beginner
2. Its all about economy, stupid! Make sure you have 3 SCV/Drone/Probe on each mineral node and gas.
3. Watch every replay, especially pay attention to losses
4. Start by playing with massing 1-2 unit armies (marauder/marine for T, zealot/stalker for P) to practice combat
5. Quiet periods should be rare, don't expect enemy to give you time to build up everything you want and don't give enemy opportunity to build up
6. Learn couple quick rush builds and polish execution until you can understand how all of them work, so you can effectively counter them.

[K9]

I'm hoping post launch the proportion of non-vet players and new players will lower the bar somewhat. I may also revel in annoying cheese tactics for a while too.

edit: Again with the achievements, the 'kill 5 changelings' one looks like a total arse. I don't see changelings getting much play at any tier, let alone having someone spawn that many. Seems like something you either ask the other guy to do for you as a favour, or else you never get it.

[Rasix]

Some zerg I was playing got an overseer very early into the game and kept spitting changelings into my base the entire game.  It was really weird.  

You see a lot of cheese in bronze/silver.  Just about every zerg will try to 6 pool you.  Most toss/terran will try something with early cloak.  That changes a bit once you head into gold, where you tend to see a lot more base hiding or one base aggressive play.  I really think you're going to see a lot of 6 rax marine cheese all over the place, however.  It's getting a lot of play.

Only match up I have a decent stable strat for is against zerg.  Doesn't hold up very well yet against muta play though.  I just have to get better at scouting spires.

[Wolf]

why weird? That's the first 100 gas I spent when my Lair pops. It's a fast overlord for a flyby scout and later changelings give you what is effectively a scan - you just pass through the base and see everything. I don't care if the changeling dies after, it's done the job :)

[Ironwood]

I agree with a great many of the sentiments put forth on this page.

I will probably still buy it though.

[naum]

I agree with a great many of the sentiments put forth on this page.

I will probably still buy it though.

No doubt I'll purchase simply for single player and custom map / scenario creation even if I only infrequently venture onto battle.net for MP.

[Malakili]

I agree with a great many of the sentiments put forth on this page.

I will probably still buy it though.

No doubt I'll purchase simply for single player and custom map / scenario creation even if I only infrequently venture onto battle.net for MP.

I think you're always on battle.net for this game.  Kinda funny how when AC2 makes people log online to play everyone flips shit, but when blizzard does it, everyone's like, eh, I'll still play it single player.  I could be wrong on this though, they might said you are technically allowed to play offline.

[Rasix]

You're being far too literal.

[Typhon]

I'll buy it for the campaign, and the vague possibility that the next DOTA is made via this game (note: I'm not saying that I'm hoping that someone makes a DOTA clone via this game, rather someone comes up with something new by using this engine).

Having to apply the rigor that I'd need to apply to not completely suck just seems like it would suck the fun out of this game for me.

[bhodi]

Even though I'm pretty decent, I don't find 1v1 overly fun for SC2. With all the games I've got, I'll probably buy it down the road sometime when I'm ready to hit up the single player campaign. By then there should be some decent custom maps, too!

[Astorax]

I'll buy it for the campaign, and the vague possibility that the next DOTA is made via this game (note: I'm not saying that I'm hoping that someone makes a DOTA clone via this game, rather someone comes up with something new by using this engine).

Having to apply the rigor that I'd need to apply to not completely suck just seems like it would suck the fun out of this game for me.

To be fair, the next DotA is probably coming out of Valve and won't be Galaxy editor done...with all the DotA-alikes running around there may not be the impetus to create a modded one, particularly when the likes of LoL are free to play.