Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty

Ender · 2010-09-05T15:15:51.000Z

I think you can get access to all the games for a year for 20 bucks.

copet · 2010-09-05T15:39:41.000Z

4 Warpgate is really powerful, you just need to get the right mix of units (Do you need many sentries? etc.) and keep building them, eventually expanding when you have a chance. Getting the first weapon upgrade is good as well, since it helps kill lings in 2 hits I believe it is, with zealots.

jeffb · 2010-09-05T16:15:18.000Z

PeterGinsberg:

I think these are technically stolen (or, I guess, actually are), since the GOM-TV casts are pay-to-view. I had planned to check it out, but I’m not paying $40 or whatever to watch people play starcraft.

Gom have a free stream too.

Angrycoder · 2010-09-05T17:07:12.000Z

PeterGinsberg:

I think these are technically stolen (or, I guess, actually are), since the GOM-TV casts are pay-to-view. I had planned to check it out, but I’m not paying $40 or whatever to watch people play starcraft.

The low quality live stream is free. For $20 bucks, you get access to the high quality stream plus the on demand replays for all the matches.

Adam_Sensoy · 2010-09-05T23:51:00.000Z

Hey, a friend of mine just told me there are trial keys available with the retail? Does anyone have one so I can give this a try with? Sorry for the beg, just figured, you know…you guys. Oh and if I do end up getting it, I’m happy to return the favor.

FieryBalrog · 2010-09-06T02:09:35.000Z

CalvinGT:

Hey, a friend of mine just told me there are trial keys available with the retail? Does anyone have one so I can give this a try with? Sorry for the beg, just figured, you know…you guys. Oh and if I do end up getting it, I’m happy to return the favor.

Check your PM

thinkingork · 2010-09-06T02:23:02.000Z

They were going to charge for all the casts but there was a huge outcry from the community. So they retreated the idea and made the compromise that every first game of each match-up is available for free. It still sucks, but it is better than nothing. Plus the season ticket is only 20 dollars, and the casters seem quite professional from what I have seen.

thinkingork · 2010-09-06T02:29:20.000Z

PeterGinsberg:

I think these are technically stolen (or, I guess, actually are), since the GOM-TV casts are pay-to-view. I had planned to check it out, but I’m not paying $40 or whatever to watch people play starcraft.

They were going to charge for all of them, but they retreated the idea when they saw the outcry from the community. So instead, they made the first game of each match-up available for free.

Personally, I am waiting for a package that includes only the highlight matches in the tournament. The quality of the casters are much higher than the ones you see on Youtube, I learned so much from watching them that it actually justifies the price tag.

IkeVandergraaf · 2010-09-06T06:46:38.000Z

Do chrono-boosts stack? Or do you waste them if you use them on the same building before the last one is finished.

McKnight · 2010-09-06T07:38:09.000Z

IkeVandergraaf:

Do chrono-boosts stack? Or do you waste them if you use them on the same building before the last one is finished.

They don’t stack so if you double boost you have wasted one.

Reldan · 2010-09-06T08:32:03.000Z

IkeVandergraaf:

Do chrono-boosts stack? Or do you waste them if you use them on the same building before the last one is finished.

Well, it restarts the timer for the boost, so it’s not a complete waste, but you do lose the remaining time on the previous boost.

AaronSofaer · 2010-09-06T09:33:09.000Z

So I played a ton of 3v3s last night (LAN party, as it were) and had a blast. We were ZZT:

1x Zerglings -> Banelings -> Roaches -> Ultralisks
1x Zerglings -> Mutalisks and Hydralisks
1x mass Marines -> mass Vikings.

I was doing four barracks (one with a tech lab, three with Reactors) and getting a fast-ish expansion, then transitioning (generally later than I should be) to mass Vikings while continuing to pump out my Barracks units.

There’s nothing like meeting a dozen mutalisks with a dozen Vikings and watching them just get shredded. A few times, my team would be sparring around in midfield, jockeying to try to snipe kills off, when the enemy comes in with a dozen Void Rays or mutas…

… and then my Vikings hit him in the flank and just om nom nom.

My favorite game was definitely the one that ended with all three of us near 200/200 armies. One army of mostly Ultralisks with some Banelings, one army of mostly Mutalisks/Hydras, and my split Battlecruisers / Vikings. We met their army on their ramp and literally rolled over them.

Is our build / strategy going to stay viable? We’re fighting mostly Gold players, for all that we’re in Silver league, but when we start fighting higher-ranked players, are we going to find ourselves needing to change anything?

Staff_Sergeant · 2010-09-06T09:48:28.000Z

It’s hard to say how that progression will do in 3v3… usually in 3v3 I find that there is a lot of early cheese rush and then one player somewhere masses something invincible while his teammates skimish and then rolls the map. Hey I noticed you guys are fighting, say hello to my 15 3/3 carriers + mothership

Adam_Sensoy · 2010-09-06T11:32:23.000Z

FieryBalrog:

Check your PM

Thanks so much FB! I will try this out today, I really appreciate it.

Lorini · 2010-09-06T18:13:10.000Z

Boy it’s gonna be a long time before I can pull off a four gate. I’ll keep practicing though.

Morberis · 2010-09-06T18:17:51.000Z

Whats the custom game scene like? I picked this up because I loved the custom games in War3 and the original Starcraft but because of their horrible system every time I’ve looked in the past it’s been the same few types.

chequers · 2010-09-06T18:43:32.000Z

Not great yet. But it’s early days, and every custom map around is getting weekly updates. I am looking forward to the future of custom maps.

Reldan · 2010-09-06T19:08:25.000Z

AaronSofaer:

So I played a ton of 3v3s last night (LAN party, as it were) and had a blast. We were ZZT:

1x Zerglings -> Banelings -> Roaches -> Ultralisks
1x Zerglings -> Mutalisks and Hydralisks
1x mass Marines -> mass Vikings.

I was doing four barracks (one with a tech lab, three with Reactors) and getting a fast-ish expansion, then transitioning (generally later than I should be) to mass Vikings while continuing to pump out my Barracks units.

There’s nothing like meeting a dozen mutalisks with a dozen Vikings and watching them just get shredded. A few times, my team would be sparring around in midfield, jockeying to try to snipe kills off, when the enemy comes in with a dozen Void Rays or mutas…

… and then my Vikings hit him in the flank and just om nom nom.

My favorite game was definitely the one that ended with all three of us near 200/200 armies. One army of mostly Ultralisks with some Banelings, one army of mostly Mutalisks/Hydras, and my split Battlecruisers / Vikings. We met their army on their ramp and literally rolled over them.

Is our build / strategy going to stay viable? We’re fighting mostly Gold players, for all that we’re in Silver league, but when we start fighting higher-ranked players, are we going to find ourselves needing to change anything?

Your end-game army of Ultra/Hydra/Viking is strong, but I’ve almost never seen a 3v3 get to 200/200 armies duking it out. The higher level games rarely get into a standoff long enough to allow people to build up that much. The focus is very much on early and mid-game pressure and not much on late-game at all.

PeterGinsberg · 2010-09-06T20:47:34.000Z

Reldan:

Your end-game army of Ultra/Hydra/Viking is strong, but I’ve almost never seen a 3v3 get to 200/200 armies duking it out. The higher level games rarely get into a standoff long enough to allow people to build up that much. The focus is very much on early and mid-game pressure and not much on late-game at all.

The bronze pickup 3v3s and 4v4s are particularly hilarious for this, most games are turtle to top tier units. You scout their base and it’s something like 16 battlecruisers or 20 collosus.

On the up side, I can cause incredible havoc with a dozen zerglings a few minutes in. Still it’s hard to crack 4 turtled players on your own, and it’s also often hard to convince random people to put pressure on. So I often end up joining in the ridiculous tech race. The best I can say about it is it’s a good place to practice units you don’t see a lot in action with 1v1.

Reldan · 2010-09-06T20:55:14.000Z

PeterGinsberg:

The bronze pickup 3v3s and 4v4s are particularly hilarious for this, most games are turtle to top tier units. You scout their base and it’s something like 16 battlecruisers or 20 collosus.

On the up side, I can cause incredible havoc with a dozen zerglings a few minutes in. Still it’s hard to crack 4 turtled players on your own, and it’s also often hard to convince random people to put pressure on. So I often end up joining in the ridiculous tech race. The best I can say about it is it’s a good place to practice units you don’t see a lot in action with 1v1.

Fair enough I guess. My 3v3 teams are all near the top of Platinum and it’s almost all arranged teams at that level duking it out, typically with builds and planned timing attacks that are vicious and occur between 5-10 minutes into the game. A lot of it depends on the maps - some of the 3v3 maps are retardedly rush-friendly (especially the ones that either do not have ramps or have multiple ramps into your main).