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StarCraft 2 Beta |OT| (Beta Now Reopen, GL HF)

Tacitus_

Member
Ashhong said:
so how are you supposed to stop a group of like 10 void rays that are powered up in your base? its insane

Scout, harass and prevent. If not possible, mass marines and try to EMP their shields? Vikings and Thors are armored so the Void Rays get +damage against them.
 

Ashhong

Member
Tacitus_ said:
Scout, harass and prevent. If not possible, mass marines and try to EMP their shields? Vikings and Thors are armored so the Void Rays get +damage against them.

ah emps, maybe ill give that a shot. just that when they have the powerup going, seem so strong
 

Meeru

Banned
Tacitus_ said:
Scout, harass and prevent. If not possible, mass marines and try to EMP their shields? Vikings and Thors are armored so the Void Rays get +damage against them.
True, but vikings also have 2 more range, so its possible you can kite it...until toss gets the flux vanes
 

Tacitus_

Member
Ashhong said:
ah emps, maybe ill give that a shot. just that when they have the powerup going, seem so strong

Mass Vikings might work as well (the wikia recommends them). They do 10+4x2 against armored air so you'd need 10? Vikings to oneshot a Void Ray.
 

JBaird

Banned
Finally got to play with my Amazon key. I lost my first 3, but won my 4th. Playing as the toss is fun, but pretty hard at first.
 

Ashhong

Member
Tacitus_ said:
Mass Vikings might work as well (the wikia recommends them). They do 10+4x2 against armored air so you'd need 10? Vikings to oneshot a Void Ray.

never actually did the math. niiice. that doesnt sound too bad at all
 
Lol wtf. I had decided to cancel my Amazon pre-order yesterday and instead go to GameStop to put my pre-order there so I could get a key right away. Amazon still sent me a key this morning even though I canceled yesterday. Oh wells it goes to my friend then.
 

Feep

Banned
Jesus Christ.

I've never really played an RTS. I need help.

This game has absolutely zero tutorials or explanation going on. I might try to find a friend with a beta and just start a match with them, in the hopes they'll let me fuck around for fifteen minutes to figure things out.

Where can I go to learn the functions of each unit and structure? Basic keyboard commands to know, basic strategy? I understand the absolute beginning of the game involve cranking out SCVs (I'm sticking with Terrans for now) and then some quick Barracks/Marines to prevent bitches from coming in and fucking my shit up immediately, but beyond that? How quickly should I expand to another set of crystals? When do I start harvesting Vespene?

I want to get mediocre at this game. Help me be mediocre!
 

Ashhong

Member
watch a lot of youtube videos. Huskystarcraft and HDstarcraft provide excellent commentaries. once the retail game comes out, the single player campaign should help you learn the basics of Terran and some good strategies. But yea, practice and watch replays.
 

NIN90

Member
Feep said:
Where can I go to learn the functions of each unit and structure? Basic keyboard commands to know, basic strategy? I understand the absolute beginning of the game involve cranking out SCVs (I'm sticking with Terrans for now) and then some quick Barracks/Marines to prevent bitches from coming in and fucking my shit up immediately, but beyond that? How quickly should I expand to another set of crystals? When do I start harvesting Vespene?


Set your hotkeys to Grid.
Wall your base off by building stuff at the ramp.
I heard 22 workers is the sweet spot for your first expansion. May vary because of your race/strategy.
 

YourMaster

Member
Feep said:
Jesus Christ.

I've never really played an RTS. I need help.

This game has absolutely zero tutorials or explanation going on. I might try to find a friend with a beta and just start a match with them, in the hopes they'll let me fuck around for fifteen minutes to figure things out.

Where can I go to learn the functions of each unit and structure? Basic keyboard commands to know, basic strategy?

You can simply play the computer. Start with the very easy AI that comes with the beta to get an idea of what to do. You can then either progress to a more advanced AI created by the community or start your placement matches and get grouped with people of your skill level.

Once you have the basics, you might want to watch some other people play. You can do that simply on youtube. This tread has several reverences to good youtube channels.
 

LaneDS

Member
Feep said:
Jesus Christ.

I've never really played an RTS. I need help.

This game has absolutely zero tutorials or explanation going on. I might try to find a friend with a beta and just start a match with them, in the hopes they'll let me fuck around for fifteen minutes to figure things out.

Where can I go to learn the functions of each unit and structure? Basic keyboard commands to know, basic strategy? I understand the absolute beginning of the game involve cranking out SCVs (I'm sticking with Terrans for now) and then some quick Barracks/Marines to prevent bitches from coming in and fucking my shit up immediately, but beyond that? How quickly should I expand to another set of crystals? When do I start harvesting Vespene?

I want to get mediocre at this game. Help me be mediocre!

You could try playing through the first Starcraft, which is pretty dated in terms of graphics and UI but still a lot of fun. The basics are all there and it would prime you for the SC2 story which should be pretty good. Also, I think it would cost all of a quarter to acquire at this point.

I'm sure SC2 single player will be a good learning tool for a lot of people as well, which obviously isn't an option just yet, but down the line it should be good for the basics at least.
 

spoon!

Member
Feep said:
Jesus Christ.

I've never really played an RTS. I need help.

This game has absolutely zero tutorials or explanation going on. I might try to find a friend with a beta and just start a match with them, in the hopes they'll let me fuck around for fifteen minutes to figure things out.

Where can I go to learn the functions of each unit and structure? Basic keyboard commands to know, basic strategy? I understand the absolute beginning of the game involve cranking out SCVs (I'm sticking with Terrans for now) and then some quick Barracks/Marines to prevent bitches from coming in and fucking my shit up immediately, but beyond that? How quickly should I expand to another set of crystals? When do I start harvesting Vespene?

I want to get mediocre at this game. Help me be mediocre!

Personally, I hate reading through strat guides and stuff, so I learnt my way through SC:BW bywatching other people play. Mostly VODs and replays. Maybe start with something like http://www.livestream.com/striderdoom, which I find pretty insightful. I don't even have a SC2 key and I feel like I can do fairly decent in it :p
 

V_Arnold

Member
Feep said:
Jesus Christ.

I've never really played an RTS. I need help.

This game has absolutely zero tutorials or explanation going on. I might try to find a friend with a beta and just start a match with them, in the hopes they'll let me fuck around for fifteen minutes to figure things out.

Where can I go to learn the functions of each unit and structure? Basic keyboard commands to know, basic strategy? I understand the absolute beginning of the game involve cranking out SCVs (I'm sticking with Terrans for now) and then some quick Barracks/Marines to prevent bitches from coming in and fucking my shit up immediately, but beyond that? How quickly should I expand to another set of crystals? When do I start harvesting Vespene?

I want to get mediocre at this game. Help me be mediocre!

First of all, there is a "VS AI" option. Go create a custom 1v1 game, and before you open to public, simply add an AI to the other team. He is slow as hell, and will let you do pretty much whatever you want.

Second, the game is about having tactics in your mind, scanning your opponents base every now and then, to see what he is trying to do, and you should adapt to his style to win (to a certain extent)

Some basic tips:

1. When playing against an Ai, the first thing you have to figure out is how to make the first fighting units as fast as possible. Usually before you know anything about your opponent, you have to assume that he is going to attack as soon as possible.

That means for a while, you will have to keep building workers, and when you reach the first food cap, you build a food supply building/unit (depending on the race you are with), then while still procuding workers, you can build your tier 1 army builder buildings. From that, you can choose a lot of stuff, but you should not bother learning that just yet.

2. You will always have to keep pushing your limits. That means if you have ~1000 resource of any type laying around, ask yourself the question: What if your opponent, doing the same tactic as you, already spent that money to buy attacking units, and is marching to your base right now? Scary, isnt it?

3. This game has a certain rock/paper/scissors feeling about it, in a way that if you succesfully manage to get one tier above your opponent (which means one of you is doing it very wrong, but anyways), you can win quite fast. Same applies if you manage to make aircrafts which shoots the grounded units against an enemy who only has ground to ground units...

First of all, go lose a bunch of games, and check out replays. Check what your opponent has done, see why he has done that, and try to "mimic" it, or get the concept behind it. Memorize the very basic hotkeys at least, then try to learn more of your chosen race.
 
D

Deleted member 30609

Unconfirmed Member
LaneDS said:
You could try playing through the first Starcraft, which is pretty dated in terms of graphics and UI but still a lot of fun. The basics are all there and it would prime you for the SC2 story which should be pretty good. Also, I think it would cost all of a quarter to acquire at this point.

I'm sure SC2 single player will be a good learning tool for a lot of people as well, which obviously isn't an option just yet, but down the line it should be good for the basics at least.
the SC1 campaign can get pretty brutal pretty fast for people like me who kind of suck. one of the most satisfying experience I've had in a game, though.

I still suck, though. I can't wait to play this (single-player, specifically).
 

JoeMartin

Member
I blew thru SC1 with cheats just to get caught up on the story, and Christ even then some of the missions took me a good while to finish.
 

fanboi

Banned
V_Arnold said:
First of all, there is a "VS AI" option. Go create a custom 1v1 game, and before you open to public, simply add an AI to the other team. He is slow as hell, and will let you do pretty much whatever you want.

Second, the game is about having tactics in your mind, scanning your opponents base every now and then, to see what he is trying to do, and you should adapt to his style to win (to a certain extent)

Some basic tips:

1. When playing against an Ai, the first thing you have to figure out is how to make the first fighting units as fast as possible. Usually before you know anything about your opponent, you have to assume that he is going to attack as soon as possible.

That means for a while, you will have to keep building workers, and when you reach the first food cap, you build a food supply building/unit (depending on the race you are with), then while still procuding workers, you can build your tier 1 army builder buildings. From that, you can choose a lot of stuff, but you should not bother learning that just yet.

2. You will always have to keep pushing your limits. That means if you have ~1000 resource of any type laying around, ask yourself the question: What if your opponent, doing the same tactic as you, already spent that money to buy attacking units, and is marching to your base right now? Scary, isnt it?

3. This game has a certain rock/paper/scissors feeling about it, in a way that if you succesfully manage to get one tier above your opponent (which means one of you is doing it very wrong, but anyways), you can win quite fast. Same applies if you manage to make aircrafts which shoots the grounded units against an enemy who only has ground to ground units...

First of all, go lose a bunch of games, and check out replays. Check what your opponent has done, see why he has done that, and try to "mimic" it, or get the concept behind it. Memorize the very basic hotkeys at least, then try to learn more of your chosen race.

This.

And Arnold sign up for tournament :p
 

Ashhong

Member
NIN90 said:
Set your hotkeys to Grid.
Wall your base off by building stuff at the ramp.
I heard 22 workers is the sweet spot for your first expansion. May vary because of your race/strategy.

I disagree, I think standard hotkey is the way to go, it just makes more sense. the only problem i have with it is that the lift off key is way over on the L. too far...
 
D

Deleted member 30609

Unconfirmed Member
My problem has always been with scouting. I just don't know how to go about it/what to look for.
 

Yoshichan

And they made him a Lord of Cinder. Not for virtue, but for might. Such is a lord, I suppose. But here I ask. Do we have a sodding chance?
I've learned so much yesterday, when my cousin started playing together with me...

Proxy Pylon
Early zeal rush
Early hellion rush
Protoss micro'ing
Terran economy burst in minutes
Weaknesses, advantages etc with every class
Priority in building units
How to actually use scvs/probes/observers efficiently

In just one day :lol Then again, we did play for 26 hours with barely any breaks... amazing.

Edit: The one thing I didn't get yesterday was how to use those guys that jump down and up a cliff with Terran... I mean, they're not fast enough to run from charging zealots OR shooting stalkers... so what do I do?
 

V_Arnold

Member
Yoshichan said:
In just one day :lol Then again, we did play for 26 hours with barely any breaks... amazing.

Seriously, dude. Get your act together. No one should play 26 hours with barelay any breaks. Did not your last 30+ hour sleeping session warn you about taking care of your body? :p

Or you intend to die from gaming? -.-
 

fanboi

Banned
V_Arnold said:
Seriously, dude. Get your act together. No one should play 26 hours with barelay any breaks. Did not your last 30+ hour sleeping session warn you about taking care of your body? :p

Or you intend to die from gaming? -.-

What a glorious death! Equal to die at the gladiator arena to the sounds *golf clap*
 

spoon!

Member
Rez said:
oh god oh god oh god
ha :p
Well the entire point of scouting is to reveal the other player's strategy so you can counter it. A really simple example is 1 minute into the game, you send a scout over and see that they've put up a very early expansion. You would then respond with a) build a shitload of units and crush the expo or b) respond with your own expansion, knowing they can't attack any time soon because they've thrown all their money into their expo.

Generally, all races scout around 9 to 12 food with a miner to find the other player's location and hopefully reveal their early build. Going into early/mid game, the races will scout differently given their tools. terran can scan, zerg with muta, toss pressure+shuttle harrass.

The more you learn the game, the more scouting will mean to you. i.e. what does scouting a protoss that has their cybernetics core spinning when you're at 26 food mean to you? If you're a newbie, probably not a lot. If you're experienced, then you know they're teching Goon range and you want some tanks with seige mode quickfast.
 

FoxSpirit

Junior Member
Go to multiplayer, select "create match", choose map, in the lobby click the "+A.I." button.
This will add an A.I. oponent set to "very easy", could also be read as "lets you do whatever you want". In that game you can build stuff and try out various things, great to get a basic feel for everything.
As for ingame tutorials, you'll have to wait till retail. The said they'll integrate tutorials on how to do well online, will be a first in RTS games :)

sidenote: Just preordered C.E. from Amazon UK. All set for July :D :D
 

Yoshichan

And they made him a Lord of Cinder. Not for virtue, but for might. Such is a lord, I suppose. But here I ask. Do we have a sodding chance?
V_Arnold said:
Seriously, dude. Get your act together. No one should play 26 hours with barelay any breaks. Did not your last 30+ hour sleeping session warn you about taking care of your body? :p

Or you intend to die from gaming? -.-
Yeah I know, but it was just so damn fun! And informative :D
 

Des0lar

will learn eventually
Yoshichan said:
Edit: The one thing I didn't get yesterday was how to use those guys that jump down and up a cliff with Terran... I mean, they're not fast enough to run from charging zealots OR shooting stalkers... so what do I do?

There is one single use for them: You need to get them into the enemy base before your opponent has the first stalker out.
Normal Zealots are slower than a Reaper and can be kited. You can 2-shot a probe and cause a terrible economic disadvantage with just a single unit.
 

Yoshichan

And they made him a Lord of Cinder. Not for virtue, but for might. Such is a lord, I suppose. But here I ask. Do we have a sodding chance?
Des0lar said:
There is one single use for them: You need to get them into the enemy base before your opponent has the first stalker out.
Normal Zealots are slower than a Reaper and can be kited. You can 2-shot a probe and cause a terrible economic disadvantage with just a single unit.
Awesome!! Thanks a lot man.

If I know my friends ain't going for stalkers early, when should I start pumping the reapers? As soon as I get the chance?
 

Des0lar

will learn eventually
fanboi said:

Sorry fanboi, but I'm not that regularly on, so I wouldn't be able keep up with the games.
Maybe I can be observer or something like that, I love to watch you guys play :D

Yoshichan said:
Awesome!! Thanks a lot man.

If I know my friends ain't going for stalkers early, when should I start pumping the reapers? As soon as I get the chance?

Yep, you really need to rush to Reapers, and send the first in ASAP. If done correctly this can be game ending. But don't forget to build stuff at your base too. Because once the first stalker is out, your reapers are worthless.
 

Yoshichan

And they made him a Lord of Cinder. Not for virtue, but for might. Such is a lord, I suppose. But here I ask. Do we have a sodding chance?
Des0lar said:
Yep, you really need to rush to Reapers, and send the first in ASAP. If done correctly this can be game ending. But don't forget to build stuff at your base too. Because once the first stalker is out, your reapers are worthless.
This is really informative for me, thanks! So basically, I should start with maybe 10 scvs then immediately build Barrack -> Tech Lab -> Reaper... how many reapers should be enough for a quick probe whipe? Meanwhile I should build something in my base, what's a good quick defense? Should I start getting gas for marauders?

In fact, what are stalkers counter? I know hellions work great for zealots...

Edit: sorry about all the questions!
 

Ashhong

Member
so its recommended to send the first reaper in asap? i always wait for a second so i can one shot the probes

Yoshichan said:
This is really informative for me, thanks! So basically, I should start with maybe 10 scvs then immediately build Barrack -> Tech Lab -> Reaper... how many reapers should be enough for a quick probe whipe? Meanwhile I should build something in my base, what's a good quick defense? Should I start getting gas for marauders?

In fact, what are stalkers counter? I know hellions work great for zealots...

Edit: sorry about all the questions!

if you want to really get the reapers out quick, you dont build any scvs. build barracks asap, gas as soon as possible, shove 3 scvs on gas, tech lab asap, build a few scvs here and there if u think u will have 50 min for reaper when tech lab is done. i geuss you want to send in the reaper asap since they will have stalkers or more marines to take it out.

i always build a marauder as soon as i send my reaper to do its job. i put this marauder in my mineral line to defend against reaper rushes.

i think marauders are a good counter for stalkers because stalkers are heavy armor
 

Yoshichan

And they made him a Lord of Cinder. Not for virtue, but for might. Such is a lord, I suppose. But here I ask. Do we have a sodding chance?
Ashhong said:
so its recommended to send the first reaper in asap? i always wait for a second so i can one shot the probes
Yeah this is what I'm wondering too... how many reapers should be enough without stalkers in the toss base?
 

Ashhong

Member
Yoshichan said:
Yeah this is what I'm wondering too... how many reapers should be enough without stalkers in the toss base?

if you can get out 2 reapers fast enough, which i believe you can if you follow the thing i said above, you should be able to do a good amount of damage unless theyre super quick. usually zergs have queen out by then though, and terran have marines. protoss is the only one you can attack and theyll have stalkers soon too.

if the player doesnt know what hes doing, he wont retreat his probes correctly and you'll basically wipe him out. if he knows what hes doing hell run the probes away and delay your attack with his zealots while his stalker builds. then its over
 

Des0lar

will learn eventually
Yoshichan said:
Yeah this is what I'm wondering too... how many reapers should be enough without stalkers in the toss base?
Don't wait. Send the first reaper in as soon as he is built.
 

mcrae

Member
NIN90 said:
Set your hotkeys to Grid.
Wall your base off by building stuff at the ramp.
I heard 22 workers is the sweet spot for your first expansion. May vary because of your race/strategy.

doesnt vary... dont bother going above 22 unless you're unable to expand for some reason
 

Yoshichan

And they made him a Lord of Cinder. Not for virtue, but for might. Such is a lord, I suppose. But here I ask. Do we have a sodding chance?
Just tried it out... I seem to have a bit of trouble with only one reaper since he got 2 zealots ready when I got there (and I did spawn reapers incredibly fast). I managed to kite them both and kill them but by that time he had one more zealot incoming so... :/

Should I maybe upgrade their speed before I start the rush since I'm not very good at kite?

Edit: Oh and I was building the second reaper while I went to opponent base with the first one... should I just wait for the second one and THEN start attacking? seems like a better idea, right?
 

Scrow

Still Tagged Accordingly
i think reapers will be nerfed in the future, similar to the marauder. their ability to cliff jump becomes a researched ability on a barracks tech lab.
 

JoeMartin

Member
The last thing reapers need is a nerf.

So so so so easy to counter and they're useful against what, 3 units? in the first 5 minutes?
 

Des0lar

will learn eventually
Yoshichan said:
Just tried it out... I seem to have a bit of trouble with only one reaper since he got 2 zealots ready when I got there (and I did spawn reapers incredibly fast). I managed to kite them both and kill them but by that time he had one more zealot incoming so... :/

Should I maybe upgrade their speed before I start the rush since I'm not very good at kite?

Edit: Oh and I was building the second reaper while I went to opponent base with the first one... should I just wait for the second one and THEN start attacking? seems like a better idea, right?

Don't research the speed buff, it's a resource waste. Don't wait for the second reaper to attack, just set the rally point inside the enemy base.

It's hard and requires a lot of micro, but you can outrun his zealots and shoot his probes, the zealots shouldn't bother you. The time the second one arrives, is the moment, you can start shooting the zealots to dust.
 

raphier

Banned
JoeMartin said:
The last thing reapers need is a nerf.

So so so so easy to counter and they're useful against what, 3 units? in the first 5 minutes?
The problem occurs when the opponent is Protoss. There's a 30 seconds gap between building a fastest reaper and building a counter. During those 30 seconds reaper can harass and no matter what happens, it is evitable that protoss' economy will suffer.
 

Yoshichan

And they made him a Lord of Cinder. Not for virtue, but for might. Such is a lord, I suppose. But here I ask. Do we have a sodding chance?
Des0lar said:
Don't research the speed buff, it's a resource waste. Don't wait for the second reaper to attack, just set the rally point inside the enemy base.

It's hard and requires a lot of micro, but you can outrun his zealots and shoot his probes, the zealots shouldn't bother you. The time the second one arrives, is the moment, you can start shooting the zealots to dust.
Gotcha! Thanks a bunch!
 

JoeMartin

Member
Unless you're trying to super cheese with a 6 rax reaper rush, reapers are almost pointless to build against toss since as soon as the first stalker pops out they're effectively useless (PvT is always straight to stalkers as reapers and marauders both hardcounter zealots early).

Marauder rush (not necessarily even "rush" - 10 depo 11 rax 11 gas; this gives just enough gas to immediately start chaining marauders and have conc shell finish before the first one gets to the opponent - just be very very very aggressive with your marauders from the very first one) is insanely more effective. Deals with zealots easily, marauders in equal numbers beat stalkers - the build in general creates tons and tons of pressure for the toss player and forces him to waste chrono on stalker production. If you can get an SCV in there early to steal a gas (and halt production at 90% -> manually destroy for refund when close to die) and maybe get some zealots/stalkers off the ramp even better.
 

mcrae

Member
JoeMartin said:
If you can get an SCV in there early to steal a gas (and halt production at 90% -> manually destroy for refund when close to die) and maybe get some zealots/stalkers off the ramp even better.

you've actually played vs toss when the toss didnt attack the probe building the refinery?

wow they suck. lol
 

Des0lar

will learn eventually
mcrae said:
you've actually played vs toss when the toss didnt attack the probe building the refinery?

wow they suck. lol
The SCV easily get's out of attack range while it's building the refinery. Sure you're not gonna finish the refinery, but you don't have to. As long as you keep pressure up, he won't be able to use his units to destroy it, and destroying it with probes takes ages.
 
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