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Starcraft 2: The struggle to not be a multiplayer newb.
Rockgod99
Member Posts: 4,640
Every once in a while a game hits the scene that is simply deemed as a "esport" multuiplayer experience.
In my lifetime i can remember only a handful of games that were simply so competitive that if you didn't spend hundreds if not thousands of hours practicing you were cannon fodder.
I did it with CS, Unreal tourney, SC and usually failed miserably.
So i'm here to ask for some tips, a little help if you will.
Last time I played SC was back in college, we ran a LAN and played eachother on the weekdays. Just a bunch of skillless newbies, with no micro/macro skills that struggled doing more that three things at a time in game.
Now I find myself wanting to be competitive (atleast on a beginner/intermediate level) in SC2 almost twelve years later.
I understand the basics of the game but im still not very good, I still click everything and have a hard time not follwing each and every unit on my screen while they complete one task at a time. I struggle with even the most basic micro; due to getting nervous while playing head to head.
I'm basically a terran freak so if anyone is really experienced with them if i could get advice on a basic micro strat, a good offensive and defensive strategy to make me some what competitive at a beginner level that would be fabulous.
While I understand its going to take a ton of playtime to get good at this game I still want a little cheat sheet that i can pull from that will atleast let me play a couple matches in between, the campaign, challen maps, AI skirmish and Co-op skirmish.
Comments
I feel your pain, I've never been good at strategy games, mainly because i could never get a hang of using all the hotkeys to micromanage everything. When I watched my friend play SC back in high school, i was amazed at how his hand seemed to zoom around the keyboard like a spider on a hotplate. Trying to be like the 'pros' is intimidating at best, so i try not to worry about it that much. I know im never going to want to put in the time, effort, blood sweat and tears and all that to become pro, so ill just enjoy muddling though my multiplayer games.
I just got SC 2 yesterday and I'm feeling exactly the same as you , really want to be competitive , but always panic when I'm playing head to head . And once the AI or other player starts attacking I just lose all co-ordinatiin.
I must say tho SC2 is an awesome buy such good value for money and endless replay value , plus Achievments on Battlenet ! what more could ya ask for.
The interface is superb too !
I never bothered to try playing SC 1 in multiplayer as my micro managment is devastating ;-)
I sticked more to Dota style games (playing currently HoN) as in these games the micromanagment is manageable.
The best tip i could give you : Hotkeys are extremly important. You should have every production building on a hotkey.
Aswell to keep overview over whole area is aswell extremly important.
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Yeah dude, the game is so much better than I thought it would be.
I assumed it was going to be all multiplayer with the singleplayer as an afterthought.
The first game had a decent singleplayer experience but nothing like this game.
I could play singleplayer with all its difficulty levels, upgrades, challenge maps and AI skirmish maps the entire time and not touch Co-op or head to head multiplayer and be happy.
I've been reading up on a few projects in the works throughout the mod community and this game is going to be played for the next ten years easy.
If i could just get good enough to hold my own at an intermediate level of play ill beable to experience everything the game has to offer for years to come.
Playing: Rift, LotRO
Waiting on: GW2, BP
Yeha im so terrible im still learning all the hot keys. im a slow ass clicker right now... its sad.
Funny you said something about Dota we have a version of that for SC2 either in the works or for download right now.
try to google it if your interested.
Playing: Rift, LotRO
Waiting on: GW2, BP
1. Don't Click
2. Don't go into a game thinking you're a complete noob, but dont be cocky about it.
3. Read strats on teamliquid.net's "Liquipedia" or mak em yourself (I'd suggest the bronze proof strats).
4. Find other people your level or higher to play against.
Play through the challenges in the game Blizzard created for you at the hardest difficulty. If you can make it there, you won't be annihilated totally.
Also, if you play ladder, not custom gaems, you will be assigend to the correct league, where players will be of similar skill level.
I still haven't gotten my hands on the official game yet. But I was in the last 2 Beta phases. It had been literally at least 8 years since I played SC1 on Battlenet, but I jumped on the beta with my good friends, and did 2v2 and 1v1's. I will say there is actually a huge difference in playing each team size. I'm a Terran player also, and as far as my 1v1 experience went, knowing I haven't ever played SC in 8 years, let alone competetively, I just went into SC2 with the mindset that I was going to lose.... ALOT. So anytime I lost, I made sure I learned something from the match. Maybe figure out a way to counter a certain attack. Really all you can do is go into every match with eyes open, and just learn. Losing a match means learning, and you will eventually start winning. My 1v1 wins never exceeded my losses, but my best record (since there were multiple resets of them during beta) was 35-37.
Which... really isn't all that terrible considering I'm about like you with this game, I never considered myself good at macro/micro managing.. and I still struggle with it when the armies become huge, and I never really competed in it harcore. But I try to adapt my playstyle (since I know I will never get to that level of "leetness" with SC2), and refine it to the best I can use it So if you're a casual SC2 player, which they are out there, you can still be good enough to eventually win more than you lose, believe it or not, you really won't play alot of the top tier players.. if you do, you'll know LOL.. as I regularly found out during placement matches :P.
In 2v2's in the last small Beta phase.. me and my friend actually came out with a winning record of 15-11!! So that was exciting.
The bottom line is... just go into every game positive and ready to learn, and you definitely will see a new tactic every game you play.. and watch those replays!! They are one of the best tools you have!! You can definitely learn alot from the other players by watching them. Another small and sometimes overlooked key, is scouting... definitely scout constantly.. so you always know what's going on and what to expect.
I sympathize with the OP. I would be willing to play SC2 in head to head matches if I could find some opps who didn't all want to play at mach 5. My preference would be setting the speed to the slowest possible setting. I want a chess match, not a click-fest.
Never click always use the bind buttons even if it goes slow at first but eventualy you will learn and get used to them and trust me if you ever want to be good online you HAVE to know all the binds without even looking at them and its easy to get used to them it doesent even take 1 day before you know them all
Some good advice guys.
When I get home i'm going to mess with some AI skirmish and try to learn all the mappings at my own pace.
Get the basics down and what not.
I'm in no rush to be competitive, SC2 has so much to offer that i will be enjoying other aspects of the game besides competitive multiplayer.
Hopefully a few months down the road (again not in a rush) ill have enough experience to hold my own at a decent level of play.
Thanks again.
Playing: Rift, LotRO
Waiting on: GW2, BP
Watch this guys videos, used to be a professional SC player - very newb friendly as he explains what is going on Day[9] - http://day9tv.blip.tv/
Have you checked out the specific challenges that are there to get you ready for multiplayer, there are 27 achievements even for the 'multiplayer training' challenges.
No thank you. I guess i wont touch any skirmish maps anymore since i got Dota (HoN) as a game itself :-)
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Honestly I don't know much about the Dota stuff myself. i kinda dabbled with it in WC3 and was directed toward LoL (if thats even the same thing lol.
I know the original SC has AoS maps (i think).
All i know is the battle.net 2.0 client is going to let players create new game types using its editor and then sell those on the marketplace. from what i've read the actual Dota team is working on one for the marketplace.
Honestly though i'm such a freaking newb at multiplayer im just hoping to be decent at the normal vanilla experience right now.
Playing: Rift, LotRO
Waiting on: GW2, BP
I haven't played with the replays yet. But, assuming that they allow you to see the enemy in the replay my suggestion would be to fight a Hard AI 1v1, last as long as you can, then watch the replay to see what it's start build is and then spend your time tweaking with that start build to one that works for you. From there it will just be practice and experience. In RTS games I usually learn the most from multiplayer losses since I usually have a moment where they're destroying me and I say "I didn't think of that strategy" so I start trying to replicate it. Once I've learned it I change it to work with my playstyle and continue on.
a good series of "newb" videos are http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=I+Suck+at+Starcraft+2&aq=f
My biggest question right now is, how many workers are optimal gathering minerals? I've heard someone say that 3 per crystal is best, and another that you should just go with 20 workers per HQ. Either way it's a giant increase over the 1 worker per crystal I used when I started the campaign (imagine the gigantic resource increase when I realised you're supposed to do more when I actually went through the tutorials).
As for Vespene, is 3 workers per geyser pretty much what everyone recommends?
Yes 3 i best per mineral node and gas - an easy way to see this is to put 3 SCV's on gas and you'll notice they never wait, cus 1 is inside the gas while the other two are moving to/from the CC/Gas - put a 4th and you'll see there is always 1 SCV waiting - he could be put to use some where else.
I know that feeling.. I just dont' have the hand eye co-ordination like I did way way back.. However, I do love the turn based games like your Civ's.. Speed isn't the trick, but strategy is, much like playing chess.. It's why I'm looking forward to Civ 5 in Sept 2010, and it's online play
Thanks Expresso.
I found figuring out the economy the most critical step in the original Starcraft, and it seems true here as well. Once you get that foundation alot of things flow better. I'm still focusing on finishing the campaign before I go online, though I've messed around with the AI in skirmish games. The AI seems pretty good, so I'm finding a few skirmish games useful for finding equilibrium with the game. Thus far I'm focusing on Terrans, I messed around with Zerg but was caught completely flatfooted by the AI my first few games.
1. Scout as much a spossible.
2. Know what units to counter your opponents.
3. Speed speed speed! If you are a slow builder pray your opponent is slower than you or else it is GG.
4. Micro-manage your resources the right way.
5. Watch replays, this helps immensely.
6. The most important this is to have fun!
I myself am an average to above average player but the more you learn from my mistakes the better you will get. BTW the single player is pretty epic! Play it , you won't be diappointed.
I like how multiplayer games have a action replay feature where you can watch a recording of the game where you can see how your oponent beat you therefore showing you ways to adapt.
Another great example of Moore's Law. Give people access to that much space (developers and users alike) and they'll find uses for it that you can never imagine. "640K ought to be enough for anybody" - Bill Gates 1981