Battlefield Stories: AI Level - Very Hard

In my last post I wrote about how Starcraft 2 AI is stupid and predictable. I figured that HARD level have the same pattern and build order. Iz can be pretty painful if you don't push right away. However, if you push you win, if you don't AI will be persistent. So, done deal with HARD level.

Then I tried VERY HARD, the last known level that is not cheating. I was a bit surprised. If you a pro gamer, you can easily skip this article. I know nothing is VERY HARD for you, as your skills are even more then insane. But hey, we noobs can enjoy AI for a while...

Battlefield stories: Starcraft 2 beta 2 started

Finally it started for EU servers. Still some issues, but looking good.

I tried AI. As I stated in my previous post I was hoping AI to be smarter, to try something new, and thus make mistakes. But no. AI is still brute force. While insane mode is cheating getting more resources and working on full power, I guess that easier levels are just slower program loop. Very predictable...

Starcraft evolution: Here comes SC2 Beta part 2

Like when you do something to ant nest. Ants increase their speed multiple times and the nest looks like it is boiling.
Few things happened a day before. The EU servers started to roll out newest patch and game upgrade. I have feeling that EU started first. The heat momentarily raised up. Americans used all available resources (despite B.net forum which was still closed) wandering what is happening at the moment. . But, it looks like North American B.net servers now started the game while we in Europe still waiting. Pieces of information is circling around, about new features, balance changes etc. Plenty of materials to keep forums full.

Starcraft evolution: Commentator operational!

Unique people. Commentators, shoutcasters, casters, broadcasters, whatever you want to call them.
I don't know for how long they are around, but I discover them in Starcraft 2 beta. Pretty surprising and exciting for me. They became a part of the big game. It is like watching any other real life sports event. Thanks to high technology, reliable internet services, practical SC2 game features (replays) and sophisticated hardware and software support, this people grab their chance to became famous. At least in gaming community.

Starcraft strategy: Overpower objectivity

Forums are lately concentrated of Bnet 2.0 bashing (lack of chat channels, no-LAN, Activision/Wizzard, international matches). But still, some disappointed players pull out the balance issues. I touched "overpowering" in my older article, but somehow I got to the new point so here is complete title on this issue.

I somehow came to conclusion that game is already balanced for some time. There are still victories for all races. You can find replays and tutorials on almost every units. How to rush with specific unit, and how to defend from it. Almost everything is covered. From classic reaper rush and 6-pool, to more neat Planetary Fortress and Cannon Rush. I have problems with some of them, so normally I did some research for videos, tutorials and strategies on topic that hurts me most...

Starcraft 2 news: Beta phase 1 extended until June 7

As announced on Bnet forums, Blizzard decided to extend phase 1 of beta testing.

We previously announced that the first phase of the StarCraft II beta test would be coming to a close in all regions on Monday, May 31. In order to prepare for the final phase of beta testing, we plan to extend the current phase in all regions until Monday, June 7. After this date, the beta test will be unavailable for several weeks while we make some hardware and software configuration changes for the final phase of the beta test and the release of the game. We plan to bring the beta test back online for a couple of weeks prior to the game’s launch to complete our testing. We’ll have more details to share about when this final phase will begin at a later date.

We’d like to thank all of our beta-test participants for your enthusiasm, dedication, and valuable feedback during the beta test, and we look forward to hearing more of your thoughts on the StarCraft II beta test as the game’s July 27 launch approaches.

Battlefield stories: Did I finaly get it?

When I started to play beta I was placed copper. At some point I was first in my division with around 110/100. This was the only time my wins were bigger then looses.
Then database get wiped out few times. I was placed copper again. Last steady period without clearing the base I was floating around #20 in my division with 60/90 ratio. maybe i get worse, maybe my opponents improve, or there was changes to ranking system. Cant say.
Last large wipe out would probably get me to copper again, but i am silver :) As we know copper doesn't exist, and somehow I skipped bronze. That doesn't reflect my skills as I won two of five by my opponent being dropped, I was dropped once, and regularly win one and loose one.

Starcraft evolution: Why UDP?

Only few days left until the end of Starcraft 2 Beta testing Phase 1. With latest patch 13 Blizzard's developers enabled UDP in order to improve game performance over Bnet system. From outside it looks like it didn't go well. I may be completely wrong, but I have feeling that all lagging, dropping and other things are UDP issue. I guess that many players (whining players) would rather say "disable that UDP again, it was better before". Simplest thing to do. On a short run. But it is not what you think...

Starcraft strategy: Timing

It is time for me to read my own article again, the first one in this blog. Lots of good advices there. But, somehow, I write about one thing, and play something else.

I can say that I know the game, I am good at strategy, I understand the rules, principles and game flow. This is kind of military academy. But when you put me on battle field... I break the rules, abandon the principles, forget to do something important, and I loose. I could win the game about 20 times, just if I force myself to do the right thing. This time i will not write about what to do. Lets see what are some common mistakes in approaching to battle, or better, what are possible wrong perception. This time I will discuss time...

Starcraft evolution: Patch 14, what to expect?

I don't participate in Bnet forum patch 13 discussion. Like first, I don't want to. Like second, I am not able to log in even if I want to. Bnet general forum looks like chat room for last several days. Repeating over and over on the same subject with no replies or less then 5 replies without descent connection to the subject.

So here is my blog, I can say what I think, and no one should comment it as I am not pushing any brand new ideas.

Starcraft evolution: Patch 13, so what

I admit, I am to bad player to understand Starcraft 2 in numbers. Pro players and Starcraft 1 veterans can see tiny differences on something as their skills depend on this, they have mastered micro-macro, they value every second in the game. I am more "clicker" (which is of course not good for good gaming).

Anyhow, I follow every patch release with great interest. Not for the game balance but for the players balance. Every time some patch is released, we usually have three races in discussion. It comes out that it is not about the units buff or nerf...

Starcraft strategy: Deception is part of the game

As Sun Tzu said, deception is base of every war. Does deception have anything to do with Starcraft 2 battles? I guess it does. But we dont use it. Deceptions, delusions, tricks, bluffs are probably valuable part of the strategy.

We don't want our opponent to get any information about our plans, while on the other side we try to get as much as possible information about him. More information we have, better we can prepare. Having no information may lead to wrong strategy and finaly to lost battle.

Now what about having false information. I would really like to see more deception tricks in starcraft games. It is not easy in Starcraft to do any bluffs. We shuld always be enough analytic to understand if some information we get is wrong and double check what is true and what false. But, some deceptions were pretty common and logical in Starcraft games. What noob thinks about it....

Battlefield stories: Proxy... not server, but barracks

Yesterday was great at first but ended very bad. I was practicing my Terran build:

Starting with 9-supply depot, Barracks, Supply, first Gas, OC, second Gas, Factory, 2 marines, Supply, Starport 1, Tech lab on Factory, Starport 2, Swap Starport 1/Factory, another Tech lab on factory, Banshee from Starport 1 rallied next to opponent base, Swap starport 2/Factory, Cloaking research, Banshee from starport 2, Tech lab on Barracks, few Marauders

Almost at the same time the second Banshee gets to position the cloaking is researched. I've seen some players to engage with the first Banshee right away, without cloak. Tried it but I like Banshee pair more, and after cloaking is done first one collected more energy...

Starcraft evolution: Autocasting and other automations

As usual, I see something or think of something, and when I have lack of information I try to search for it. The most result I get is to find many debates on the subject. Today's topic is about Autocast in Starcraft 2. I don't want to debate about it but just put some thoughts from my point of view based on everything I found about it on Internet. Like for everything else in Starcraft 2 macro-mechanics,  I see there is one major issue when debating. There are many arguments against or for something, but it is usually based on individual opinion. When someone thinks that something is overpowered it is usually not something of his major race. Everyone would like to have his race stronger and the other races weaker...

Pieces of advice: Some common Starcraft 2 terms for absolute beginners

If you are newbie and search over the internet for some tips, tricks, build orders and strategies, you will probably find nice tutorials, forum discussions  or other type of helping articles. But sometimes you will not understand exactly everything, and be confused. As internet is full of abbreviations and shortcuts, players like to use them in communication. Here is some collection of abbreviations, phrases, synonyms, acronyms nicknames that I found around the mother of all networks. Some meanings were strange to me too so i researched them. I hope it will help you to understand "sometimes-hard-to-understand" articles.
Here we go...

News: Starcraft 2 Beta phase one ends May 31

As announced on battle.net forum the Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty Beta phase one will end on Monday, May 31 in all regions, and will probably start again as Beta final phase a week or two prior to final game release and launch on July 27.
In the meantime, some software and hardware configuration and upgrades will be preformed.
It is not known from the details if any function from the game will be available during "blackout" (custom maps, editor, etc)....

Pieces of advice: Sun Tzu's wisdom

Today, something totaly different. I don't know how many of you have a chance to look at great masterpiece The Art of War by Sun Tzu, ancient Chinese military strategist and heroic general, who lived from 722–481 BC. There are many wisdom in this text. Part of it is about war in general, about government and relations, about army moral and command, but here I made an excerpt of interesting quotes that I guess all of you will "recognize" at some point. If you search for Starcraft 2 strategies on internet, you will see that battle strategies in general are almost always the same. Can you implement Sun Tzu's wisdom in your strategy development?

Pieces of advice: Destroying order

There are many different building orders, for different action plans, on different maps, and against different races. Builds may be standard or sometimes orthodox.

What about destroying order? Once we engage our units, what are destroying priorities? Are our decisions always right?  If you have enormous combined combat group then destroying order is completely irrelevant. You just walk through and let the AI decides the order. But when you have small operative group which cannot win the game but can make a difference, what are your decisions. I will try to make some overall insight through all three races.

Twisted games: Terran Exodus

Another twisted game out of standard build. Author says that it is possible only in Kulas Ravine, because of natural blocks on both ramps. It is interesting that I got the same idea when I started Starcraft 2 beta and before I saw this video from Ymirheim. The result was that I failed :)

My opponent was smart enough to understand what I did, he adapt and I lost. My build order was bad and slow. I quit the idea thinking that you probably lost to much time moving CC to other place. As we see, it is possible, but it depends on your opponent skills and your build precision...

Starcraft evolution: One point of Starcraft history

Many of us like to watch historical movies. About Romans, prehistorical people, great world battles etc. We like to see how it was before and we compare it to today.

Even history of Starcraft is pretty reach starting from version 1, the major thing we remember is that Blizzard managed to balance three races which live, work, fight and operate on three totally different concepts. All other strategy games these days mostly offered only different graphics, names and colors for different sides in battle, so they didn't have tough time doing any ballance. Starcraft 1 was strategy game revolution. Starcraft 2, as long awaiting sequel, was expected to be better then first one. Graphics are normaly better, animations and effects rocks. But main concern of everyone was a game ballance. Blizzard took this seriously, as they understand that balance is in numbers. So, the beta release was the best thing they can do to get those numbers in large ammounts...

Starcraft 2 units: Ground control to Mule, report to mineral line!

I was recently a bit interested in MULE, mutant SCV with the failure - expandable and limited energy. Reading around unit explanations and forum debates, Mule is pretty controversal unit. Some Terrans find it very usefull. Some think it is useless and waste of time. Other races are divided too, between "doesn't care" opinion and that Mules are Terran's advantage.

I guess the opinions differs strictly based on individual player style. If Terran don't use mules maybe he never tried and what difference it makes. Every unit has what is has, the difference is in usage, or better, if you can decide, when, why and how you can use it. It stands very strong for Mules.

Twisted games: Overconfidence and half scouting

Here is the first article in category of  Twisted games. I will present here the games that have kind of unusual and creative flow, which you cannot see every day. I watch many casters out there on you tube. So many videos there. Sometimes bad, sometimes good, sometimes copper, sometimes platinum, and finaly mostly standard but sometimes really twisted.

First in line is Mildo [T] vs Johny [Z], Platinum league, 1v1 custom game, commented by SchickySC. Interesting idea and game build. Twisted.. Click on the "full article" below and take a look:

Starcraft 2 units: Welcome lil' Thorrie

I read some recent comments about patch 12. Seems that Zergs are pretty upset about roaches gets twice as hungry. They get nothing instead.

Now lets see Thor. I would like to write about Thor as I am Terran player.

# Radius decreased from 1.375 to 0.8125.
# Model size reduced to match new radius.

It is kind of interesting that something property unit is "decreased" but actually it is in favor of it. Mostly, decreasing of any timing is advantage, either building, cooling down, charging etc. But for Thor - size is something that he realy needs to be nerfed.

Starcraft 2 units: Is there a reason to hate Infestor?

Lucky me, so far I never had those beasts, Zerg Infestors, as enemy. Even my opinion doesn't have any relevant weight I think infestors are overpowered. Yes, depends on how well you are doing micro.
Everyone easy understend that infestors are so vulnerable and even easy to kill. But their extensive abilities makes them very valuable, and every smart player will keep them behind major units. Again, I don't think I like Infestors. They have so many abilities, and they are so powerful weapon in a hand of a pro.

Battlefield stories: Cannon rush, and how I was owned

Beside theoretical knowledge I am collecting through tutorials, my replays, and video commentaries of our great casters, practice is something that I do bad. I am writing this after loosing three in a row as Terran. I also win one. And this is time when I need to stop pushing my luck and think of some things. Early rush is bad thing, punishment not to be prepared from the beginning. When you see your five workers parked on the mineral line the game begins. You shold be at the right speed from first click. I guess there are a few details that always spoil my build...

Pieces of advice: Did you set up your mind right?

It is not much that I played so far. Around 300 matches on ladders, mostly as Terran. The fascinating thing about this game is that you play against human. If you think seriously it is not all about how strong immortal is, what is most economic build order or how many damage you can do with stims... Those are the game options, same for all players. The human player on the other side is what makes all the difference.

Let's say if you don't want to think about anything at all. Just collect resources, build objects and send units to attack. This will probably win the game against A.I at "very easy" and those are the basic physics.