StarCraft 2 Beta Roll Call & Discussion

[Ten19]

Let's get things organized now that more CoGs are in on the SC2 Closed Beta. If you're in the Beta and you don't see your Friend ID here, post and I'll add it.

I demand arranged CoG matches! (at some point)

Looks like NA testers are on a different server than EU ones :(

They initiated a ladder reset, so all names were wiped. Update here if you have your old one and I'll move them from the spoiler to the list.

NA CoG's
Adama.tszarathstra (zarathstra)
CappinCanuck.cog (CappinCanuck)
ClannerDelta.cog (ClannerDelta)
loki.loki (loki)
LUppercut.cog (Lance Uppercut)
OrangePulp.pulp (OrangePulp)
pigeon.cog (Pigeon)
spcialk.discord (spcialk)
stigs.alias (AliasRomanian)
Ten.cog (Ten19)
wolf.mecca (DiBiddilyBop)

EU CoGs
Narradisall.cog (Narradisall)
Saarth.brood (SonofSeth)

[Dukefrukem]

<3 Ten

I think I'm on a different server. Some people I can friend, others I can't.

[Ten19]

<3 Ten

I think I'm on a different server. Some people I can friend, others I can't.

As far as I know it's all one server... maybe they're having congestion issues? The only two people from the list I couldn't find were hotcod and Narradisall, maybe they relayed the wrong IDs (though oddly enough they both have the .cog suffix).

[iHap]

As far as I know it's all one server... maybe they're having congestion issues? The only two people from the list I couldn't find were hap and Narradisall, maybe they relayed the wrong IDs.

My name is a bit tricky. I'll log in and send you a message when you're on.

[Ten19]

My name is a bit tricky. I'll log in and send you a message when you're on.

Actually my bad. I got you hap. I couldn't get hotcod.

[Dukefrukem]

As far as I know it's all one server... maybe they're having congestion issues? The only two people from the list I couldn't find were hotcod and Narradisall, maybe they relayed the wrong IDs (though oddly enough they both have the .cog suffix).

LOL. Those are the two people I tried and couldn't get to work either. I gave up after them.

[Ten19]

I strongly suggest if anyone's having trouble figuring out the units to press F12 when in a game/replay. You get the tech trees and an awesome database of every unit and building, including their strengths and weaknesses.

Also, for reference:

http://www.1019.net/sc2_terran.jpg
http://www.1019.net/sc2_protoss.jpg
http://www.1019.net/sc2_zerg.jpg

[violent]

This is fucking depressing.

[Crowe]

This is fucking depressing.

I couldn't agree more.

[iHap]

This is fucking depressing.

You punish yourself by entering these threads.

[violent]

You punish yourself by entering these threads.

But I must, damn you! Can't you see that?

[iHap]

But I must, damn you! Can't you see that?

Just for you Violent.

http://i48.tinypic.com/6nq9mg.jpg

[violent]

Go stand in fire, Hap.

[Dukefrukem]

bwhahahahahahaha

[Ten19]

Actually, it looks like both Hotcod and Narradisall are EU, if I'm not mistaken. My guess is that they are actually on a different "server" of sorts. That would make sense in matchmaking, for latency purposes.

[CappinCanuck]

Actually, it looks like both Hotcod and Narradisall are EU, if I'm not mistaken. My guess is that they are actually on a different "server" of sorts. That would make sense in matchmaking, for latency purposes.

Yeah, they did have separate keys for each. Normally that's something they do not do for betas. So, probably a split there into different servers.

[OrangePulp]

Yeah, they did have separate keys for each. Normally that's something they do not do for betas. So, probably a split there into different servers.

Squid said it would lock to your region, so, I'm not sure there are actually separate keys; it might have to do with how your bnet account is registered? I can't remember filling in any region information, but I don't remember for certain.

In other news, proxy pylon with warp gates is all kinds of fun. I think I'm going to switch to protoss from random, so I can really improve on a single race. It feels somewhat lame, since the majority of players seem to be protoss, but they always were my favorite.

[BigJonno]

Ah, the heady joys of continental segregation in an allegedly global medium. ;) It's amazing that I used to play games across the pond on my 56k dial-up, but apparently it's impossible on my 20Mb cable.

I have no problem with localised servers, but it should be a choice, not a restriction. Yet another thing that Ultima Online got absolutely right and people have been fucking up ever since.

(Yes, I know UO is an MMO and SC2 isn't, but the point still stands.)

[Narradisall]

Different servers? Damn! I'll give it a try adding people later regardless. I imagine this is only for the beta though. I did notice from my brief testing last night that the animated characters etc isn't there. I assume to save downloading even more gig and it's more testing online balance than the polish and playability.

I did spend a good minute clicking a marine to hear all the voice options. I did laugh at the bleeped out swearing. I think the protoss had something like 10 different lines.

I am deffo Narradisall.cog as far as I can tell. I'll be giving this more play tonight and this weekend. Would be good to get some cog games going if NA/EU play is allow in the beta.

[Dukefrukem]

Actually, it looks like both Hotcod and Narradisall are EU, if I'm not mistaken. My guess is that they are actually on a different "server" of sorts. That would make sense in matchmaking, for latency purposes.

I think I am too.

edit: maybe not cuz I was able to friend OrangePulp

[boratika]

When I log into battle net, it sticks a "kr" in the URL. If this is regional and in the same region as Korea...



...well suffice to say, curse these real-pretty lips of mine.

[Khrymsyn]

I'd love to be added to this list, but I completely can't remember what my .???? is...

I think perhaps Khrymsyn.dharknesse ?
Or Khrymsyn.khrymsyn

That's what I'd try anyway. I know I've got the beta and haven't played yet. Was never a PvP SC player, but a PvE (or PvAI, whatever). But I'd still love to give it a shot. =)

[Dukefrukem]

I'd love to be added to this list, but I completely can't remember what my .???? is...

I think perhaps Khrymsyn.dharknesse ?
Or Khrymsyn.khrymsyn

That's what I'd try anyway. I know I've got the beta and haven't played yet. Was never a PvP SC player, but a PvE (or PvAI, whatever). But I'd still love to give it a shot. =)

Took me a while to find it after I made it too. On your main screen (after you login), where your name is, it will be right next to it.

[Hotcod]

Shame I won't be able to play with you guys, maybe they'll lift the restrictions in one way or another as the beta goes on

[Narradisall]

Yeah, seems I can only add hotcod, no one else on the list. I can't seem to find anythin in game that says we're on different servers, but my b-net account is clearly an EU one.

I'll get some practice in later tonight.

[Khrymsyn]

Took me a while to find it after I made it too. On your main screen (after you login), where your name is, it will be right next to it.

Yeah, so it shows as Khrymsyn.dharknesse
Hope to maybe hook up with someone this weekend? =)

[Narradisall]

I must be out of practice, been getting wooped so far.

The game speed is ramped up it seems and you can find yourself up against a ton of enemies pretty quick.

The canals are a pain too, got to keep some decent anti air to pick off any overlords before zerg start popping up all over the place.

[Dukefrukem]

can anyone else not connected to battlenet?

[violent]

can anyone else not connected to battlenet?

Me. Sigh.

[Dukefrukem]

ugggh. Oh well. Heavy Rain time.

[Ten19]

ugggh. Oh well. Heavy Rain time.

You really should pay closer attention to threads, duke :p

[Narradisall]

So, what do people think of the balance so far?

I'm not liking the speed being defaulted up to fastest, I swear it used to be slower on the first. Most matches last 10 minutes, I think the max one I played lasted 15 (win or lose). Granted if both side had better balanced players (which may come later once Im ranked) they may last longer. Still I'd prefer it to be slow because my second reason.

Hit and runs. Now this has always been a valid tactic, but man you can do too much damage using just this tactic. As buildings die quicker and speed is ramped up, you can take out a good 2-3 unit producing buildings with even a medium sized force before they get near you.

I find the zerg are dominating on this. You can easily sneak overlords about and drop canals right in an enemy base, or drop one as a distraction and a second for your main force. Especially with roaches, burrowing and moving around while burrowed you can vanish and pop up, destroy a barracks and vanish again before they get you. As most players don't concentrate on detectors right away you can really do some damage.

Haven't had much time with protoss, but I hear they kick ass too. I played one guy who was holding back my forces with a force about half the size of mine (this could easily be my noobishness though). I haven't found many games where the opponent will let me play about testing mixtures of forces and tactics for general balance testing, but hopefully I get some good testing out of when I can.

Shame the only AI option is "easy", since it does so little in the way of fighting that it doesn't push you and give any decent sense of testing the AI or balance.

[boratika]

boratika.cog for if/when things get cross-regional.


I'm seem to be in something of a void, as I've not yet been able to get into a game.


Possibly a good thing, as playing against the training-dummy AI, I am feeling well out of practice. Dusting off neural pathways for tech-trees and the like that I haven't used in some time. I'm pretty sure when I do get into actual games I will be thoroughly demoralised.

[CappinCanuck]

So, what do people think of the balance so far?

I'm not liking the speed being defaulted up to fastest, I swear it used to be slower on the first. Most matches last 10 minutes, I think the max one I played lasted 15 (win or lose). Granted if both side had better balanced players (which may come later once Im ranked) they may last longer. Still I'd prefer it to be slow because my second reason.

Hit and runs. Now this has always been a valid tactic, but man you can do too much damage using just this tactic. As buildings die quicker and speed is ramped up, you can take out a good 2-3 unit producing buildings with even a medium sized force before they get near you.

I find the zerg are dominating on this. You can easily sneak overlords about and drop canals right in an enemy base, or drop one as a distraction and a second for your main force. Especially with roaches, burrowing and moving around while burrowed you can vanish and pop up, destroy a barracks and vanish again before they get you. As most players don't concentrate on detectors right away you can really do some damage.

Haven't had much time with protoss, but I hear they kick ass too. I played one guy who was holding back my forces with a force about half the size of mine (this could easily be my noobishness though). I haven't found many games where the opponent will let me play about testing mixtures of forces and tactics for general balance testing, but hopefully I get some good testing out of when I can.

Shame the only AI option is "easy", since it does so little in the way of fighting that it doesn't push you and give any decent sense of testing the AI or balance.


Yeah, the hit and run is a big bitch now, heh. I think it needs to be defaulted to fast rather than fastest. There's a pretty good chance that 6 or 8 units dumped in your base will take out your CC/Nexus/Lair before you can even take them out, despite having your army in the base. It'll only last about 5 seconds, so if they just focus fire and ignore your units coming in, you're in some deep trouble.

[Dukefrukem]

You really should pay closer attention to threads, duke :p

Did I miss an announcement or something?

[Narradisall]

Downloading a patch now. Maybe they took b-net off for a while too, although I haven't been trying to get on till now.

Temporal Rift: This ability has been removed from the game.
Wormhole Transit: This ability has been removed from the game.
New ability: Mass Recall - Teleports all of the player's units in the target area to the Mothership.

I guess they didn't like the mothership.

[Narradisall]

I do love some of these video's coming up.

I think this sums up my experience so far rather nicely.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92Rv-s-7rNk

[Hotcod]

haha i just started that video up and it's good old TB, i've not listened to him in years. I used to listen a lot to warcraft radio 'cus he was a funny guy and it was a cool way of keeping up to date with the game and stuff. Kind of total forgot about it when i stopped playing. Shall keep up with those videos I think heh

also if you mute the mic it will keep it mutted in windows when you quit the game which is annoying

[Ten19]

also if you mute the mic it will keep it mutted in windows when you quit the game which is annoying

From the patch notes of the update from today/yesterday:

BUG FIXES
Muting your microphone will no longer cause your microphone to be turned off in the operating system once the program has exited.

Please note that the voice chat functionality has only partially been implemented. There are many known issues with voice chat that we expect to address in a future patch.

[Hotcod]

good to know!

[CappinCanuck]

good to know!

Heh, no kidding. Now I know why my headset was missing when I exited the other day. I had to replug it, I was concerned after dumping so much cash on this baby.

[Ten19]

Patch notes from today for Update 2
Terran
Banshee
Cloak: This ability no longer requires Fusion Core to research.

Barracks
The build time for this building has decreased from 65 to 60.

Factory
The build time for this building has decreased from 65 to 60.

Reactor
The build time for this building has decreased from 40 to 25.

Reaper
The build time for this unit has increased from 30 to 40.
Nitro Boost: The build time for this upgrade has increased from 90 to 100.

Starport
The build time for this building has decreased from 55 to 50.

Tech Lab
The build time for this building has decreased from 30 to 25.

Protoss
Mothership
The build time for this unit has increased from 120 to 160.
The food cost of this unit has increased from 6 to 8.
The number of shots fired by this unit has decreased from 8 to 6.
The shield of this unit has decreased from 400 to 350.
The health of this unit has decreased from 400 to 350.
The acceleration of this unit has decreased from 1.3125 to 0.3125.
The deceleration of this unit has increased from 0 to 1.

Nexus
Chrono Boost: The duration of this ability has decreased from 30 to 20.

Zerg
Corruptor
The damage done by this unit has increased from 12 (+8 massive) to 12 (+10 massive).
They're really beating up the MS recently.

[Narradisall]

To be fair the MS is rather powerful. I know its supposed to be, but it takes one hell of a beating to take down so you can even SEE the other army. By which time given how quickly units die in SC2 you probably don't have anything left.

[Narradisall]

Oh yeah, and I read on the Beta forums that as it currently stands, cross region multiplayer will not be allowed.

Which is a HUGE deal breaker to me. It does not appear that you can even change Gateways like in WC3 to say US EAST if you wish. Your stuck in the region you bought it.

Massive step back imo when SC1 and WC3 could be played with anyone in the world. I'm hopeful it will be changed though.

[CappinCanuck]

Oh yeah, and I read on the Beta forums that as it currently stands, cross region multiplayer will not be allowed.

Which is a HUGE deal breaker to me. It does not appear that you can even change Gateways like in WC3 to say US EAST if you wish. Your stuck in the region you bought it.

Massive step back imo when SC1 and WC3 could be played with anyone in the world. I'm hopeful it will be changed though.

I'm guessing this is a result of the new bnet rather than sc2. So you can expect the same thing with D3 when it gets here.



I'm glad the mothership and reapers got a bit nerfed heh. They were an annoyingly overpowered.

[Narradisall]

Man, that sucks if its true.

I fail to see the logic that I could play SC1 and D1/2 years ago on my old crappy connection and still get decent games all the time. Yet these days they won't allow it for the sake of better ping?

Got to be another reason.

[BigJonno]

Fuck, if that's the case, I almost certainly won't be buying D3.

[kyrieee]

Guys, it's a Beta, all the bnet features aren't there yet

Also, the higher rank ladders seem to be dominated by Protoss so these changes are probably a conscious over steer in order to get people to play Terran more.

[Narradisall]

As I said, what I read indicated that as it stands in the beta, regional filtering will be in the final product. (Hopefully there will be enough uproar to get it changed if possible).

Can I change Gateways like in StarCraft I to play with people in other regions?

Unlike StarCraft I, there is no gateway selection to allow you to play with players in other regions. You will only be able to play against players within the same region as you.

Protoss were dominating due to the mothership. Damn that thing was bad ass. Although I do enjoy the new mass recall as well.

Now I'm ranked (bronze league, 4th division cause I suck that much) I'm finding it really hard to get games, even at peak times. They really should let some more people in.

I dunno what happened to me though, I used to be half decent at SC1, not anything amazing but I could hold my own. SC2 is just a continued ownage fest for me.

[boratika]

Well, over the whole weekend, I managed to get into one game. It was a bit disappointing, but ah well.

[Narradisall]

I just played one now. I know they're still tweaking the match making system, it's supposed to get you quick matches, but it means the balance sucks. I find most games are just ending up in rushes with me managing to get little in the way of testing balance done.

Some times it's taking more time to find a game than the game actually lasts. I know they want quick messy games at the moment for quicker results, but most the time I'm getting slaughtered by someone thats figured out a tactic to rack them up wins with no regard for actually testing.

I even saw a team mate get bunker rushed with marines that 2 barrakcs pushing out 4 marines every minute they just didn't stand a chance.

[CappinCanuck]

Well, over the whole weekend, I managed to get into one game. It was a bit disappointing, but ah well.

I felt the same way after my first game. Maybe it's just because you expect so much from SC2 heh. But I got over it by the second or third game and realized that it's pretty great :) It's exactly what SC2 should be.

[Narradisall]

I thought I'd give the AI path finding a try and see how well it worked with around 200 zerglings with their speed boost.

It was....quite a sight...

They found their way perfectly across the map, and utterly cut to pieces everything in their way. I've never seen a base go down so quick.

[boratika]

I felt the same way after my first game. Maybe it's just because you expect so much from SC2 heh. But I got over it by the second or third game and realized that it's pretty great :) It's exactly what SC2 should be.

Nah, I meant it was disappointing because I tried all weekend and only got into one game. I mean sure I got raped pretty rapidly, but I was expecting that.


I had a copy of The Steel Remains to read while waiting, so that's read, so it wasn't such a waste of time.

[CappinCanuck]

Nah, I meant it was disappointing because I tried all weekend and only got into one game. I mean sure I got raped pretty rapidly, but I was expecting that.


I had a copy of The Steel Remains to read while waiting, so that's read, so it wasn't such a waste of time.

Oh okay, haha. Oops, I guess I misinterpreted then. Either way, it's a great SC successor in my opinion. That much should be evident by the plentiful, "This is NOT Starcraft," versus, "It's everything Starcraft," threads on the forums. That just means it's enough of old and new :)

[OrangePulp]

I'm realizing one of my problems is staying aggresive. I'll tend to get pensive, think, "These forces aren't enough, I'd better hold back and wait for more". That always seems to be a bad move, in SC2. If you can keep them pinned in their base, with no expansions, you can get a major advantage.

[Narradisall]

I'm finding the opposite. I'll knock out a half decent for of say 10 units really quick and rush off to harass, to find 20 better units waiting for me. Either that or I get both the other players hit me at the same time.

Watching some of the replays, I'm pretty damned fast, but the other guys seem to manage to stay ahead production wise. To win I need to be playing my A-game all the time at the moment, which isn't as much fun when I'm just in the mood for a casual game.

I'm sure most of that will clear up once more people are about and the matchmaking has been tweaked.

[CappinCanuck]

I'm finding the opposite. I'll knock out a half decent for of say 10 units really quick and rush off to harass, to find 20 better units waiting for me. Either that or I get both the other players hit me at the same time.

Watching some of the replays, I'm pretty damned fast, but the other guys seem to manage to stay ahead production wise. To win I need to be playing my A-game all the time at the moment, which isn't as much fun when I'm just in the mood for a casual game.

I'm sure most of that will clear up once more people are about and the matchmaking has been tweaked.

Well, if you're evenly matched, the other person will always be a bit more ahead because you have travel time to get to their base. However, it doesn't matter how big/good of an army they have, if they do not attack you with it. Harassing and pinning them will let you get your expansion, catch up, and surpass them. I have the same problem as Orangepulp and have very much been trying to be more aggressive.

[Hotcod]

I think people are underestemting just how important scouting is in this game. If you know what the other player is doing you can decided to rush or to counter. In general some form of harrassing is useful if you can do enough damage or keep him pinned in his base to make it worth your while. An early hit and run on there econ almost always seems worth it if you can dice up enough gatherers even if you lose the units you've sent.

Which all screws me since I've always sucked at scouting and knowing a game well enough to counter and I have to over come my tendency to play very defensively.

[Dukefrukem]

Well, over the whole weekend, I managed to get into one game. It was a bit disappointing, but ah well.

I gave up after not being able to get into one Fri night. I'll try again after the patch release.

[CappinCanuck]

I gave up after not being able to get into one Fri night. I'll try again after the patch release.

So strange you and Boratika are having problems. I've gotten into every game, every time I've clicked Start, and usually within 20 seconds. I can't imagine what the problem might be.

[OrangePulp]

Man I hate playing terran; they wall so you can't scout early, and if they do a quick rush with M&M, and you don't really bulk up forces to face it, it's GG.

[CappinCanuck]

Man I hate playing terran; they wall so you can't scout early, and if they do a quick rush with M&M, and you don't really bulk up forces to face it, it's GG.

Don't hate us, there's a good reason we do it that way. BUT, I'm not telling because you don't play with me :p.

[Narradisall]

Well I dunno about Duke, sicne you'll all on the US, but the EU lacks the numbers in beta to find a game quickly.

I do love scouting early, I think I just need to learn what units to counter what with better.

I do loath the double unit creating marine addon. I've seen some really powerful early pushes made with 2 barracks churning out 4 marines every minute. As protoss I cannot get numbers up quick enough to counter that. Easier with Zerg, but it's still a pain.

[CappinCanuck]

Well I dunno about Duke, sicne you'll all on the US, but the EU lacks the numbers in beta to find a game quickly.

I do love scouting early, I think I just need to learn what units to counter what with better.

I do loath the double unit creating marine addon. I've seen some really powerful early pushes made with 2 barracks churning out 4 marines every minute. As protoss I cannot get numbers up quick enough to counter that. Easier with Zerg, but it's still a pain.

Two gateways pumping zealots should get your numbers up and leave you enough to counter and probably win the game or give you a big edge.

[Narradisall]

Two gateways pumping zealots should get your numbers up and leave you enough to counter and probably win the game or give you a big edge.

I find it hard to keep up, even with equal economies. Two gateways at 100 a zealot is pumping out two zealots every min or so. He can pump out 4 marines for the same cost.

I may be (probably am) doing it wrong, but I've not managed to get one zealot kill 2 marines.

I fully admit I'm sucking at SC2 at present though. I wish they would stack the divisions, so bronze = normal game speed, silver = fast and gold = fastest.

[CappinCanuck]

I find it hard to keep up, even with equal economies. Two gateways at 100 a zealot is pumping out two zealots every min or so. He can pump out 4 marines for the same cost.

I may be (probably am) doing it wrong, but I've not managed to get one zealot kill 2 marines.

I fully admit I'm sucking at SC2 at present though. I wish they would stack the divisions, so bronze = normal game speed, silver = fast and gold = fastest.

Oh, one zealot kills 2 marines. Your odds go up quite a bit with groups if it's 1:2.

[Narradisall]

Ah ok, maybe it's just my suckage atm. I had a game where I was churning out zealots and him marines. It was a weird battle of attrition (he built the barracks near my base) which he won out eventually.

Maybe he'd been upgrading them as he pushed though....

[kyrieee]

Ah ok, maybe it's just my suckage atm. I had a game where I was churning out zealots and him marines. It was a weird battle of attrition (he built the barracks near my base) which he won out eventually.

Maybe he'd been upgrading them as he pushed though....

Watch the replay and find out ;)
Replays are the key to improving!

[OrangePulp]

If you want to defend against rushes, as protoss, you definitely want a 9 pylon 10 gateway build order. That is, build 9 probes, and send your 9th to build a pylon (and then probably send him to go scout the other guy's base). Then build your 10th, and when the pylon finishes, go build a gateway. Then start chrono-boosting probes. Also, be sure to save enough for right when that gateway finishes, so you can chrono boost it from the start.

Another thing to do to defend against rushes, is to build your pylon and gateway at the ramp/choke point of your base. Try to block off just enough so that you can get a large unit through (immortal or what have you, I think you need 2 squares for that). Then you can hold that choke with zealots against marines, or zergling, or other zealots, with fewer numbers.

[Narradisall]

I have been watching some of the replays. It usually ends up with me sitting there going "How, how is he making that many units that fast!" and "I swear with the same number of probes he's getting more mineral, haxxorz!".

In all seriousness, I probably need to learn more, but instead I seem to find me throwing myself blindly into the next game to try out another wacky combo.

[CappinCanuck]

I have been watching some of the replays. It usually ends up with me sitting there going "How, how is he making that many units that fast!" and "I swear with the same number of probes he's getting more mineral, haxxorz!".

In all seriousness, I probably need to learn more, but instead I seem to find me throwing myself blindly into the next game to try out another wacky combo.

Pulp is right about the build order. That's my exact order with the terrans. I always build counter rush at the start, every game. It never really puts you behind because if they do not rush, and instead tech, you have units to go after/harass/pin them; or the units to defend an early expansion and destroy his. It's always win/win if you do it well because this gives you map control.

[kyrieee]

You can watch this regarding protoss openings
http://www.livestream.com/striderdoom/video?clipId=pla_e6bd214b-ce06-4db8-8949-4079a988a83e

and this!
http://www.livestream.com/striderdoom/video?clipId=pla_40832d43-645c-4ee9-a9a7-4e7e1ff53dbf

[Narradisall]

Yeah, I think my main failing is I haven't bothered to learn the 'right' opening for each race.

I blame that on me not being the overly competative player. most my SC1 online involved custom maps, they were just more fun. I am still enjoying playing the balance game. I do hope they improve the new bnet though. My current opinion of it is... meh.

[Dukefrukem]

So i can't download the new patch for some reason. It errors. And on their site it says I need to redownload the installer... does that mean i need to reinstall it too? WTF?

[Narradisall]

There are a few hilarious videos about with the zerg mind control being used to pick up probes and SCV's so that a player can play all 3 races at once (build a CC or nexus).

Not practical at all for actual games, but amusing to see.

[Dukefrukem]

anyone want to play? I need to remember how to play with Protos

[Narradisall]

I'd love to, but alas I am stuck on the other side of the invisible atlantic barrier.

[Hotcod]

any one got any good links to terran build orders and such? I want to try and improve my game a bit.

[CappinCanuck]

any one got any good links to terran build orders and such? I want to try and improve my game a bit.

No links, Hotcod. But get on the internal beta forums through the link on the splashscreen. There are tons of strategies and counter-strategies every other thread. If you go through the bnet site, you don't get to the same forums.

[Narradisall]

More patching fun.

StarCraft II Beta - Patch 3 (version 0.5.0.14219B)

Balance Changes


TERRAN
Engineering Bay
Infantry Armor: The time required for each upgrade has been reduced by 30 seconds, decreasing each upgrade time from 190/220/250 seconds to 160/190/220 seconds.
Infantry Weapons: The time required for each upgrade has been reduced by 30 seconds, decreasing each upgrade time from 190/220/250 seconds to 160/190/220 seconds.
Armory
Vehicle Plating: The time required for each upgrade has been reduced by 30 seconds, decreasing each upgrade time from 190/220/250 seconds to 160/190/220 seconds.
Vehicle Weapons: The time required for each upgrade has been reduced by 30 seconds, decreasing each upgrade time from 190/220/250 seconds to 160/190/220 seconds.
Ship Plating: The time required for each upgrade has been reduced by 30 seconds, decreasing each upgrade time from 190/220/250 seconds to 160/190/220 seconds.
Ship Weapons: The time required for each upgrade has been reduced by 30 seconds, decreasing each upgrade time from 190/220/250 seconds to 160/190/220 seconds.


PROTOSS
Zealot
The maximum shield capacity of this unit has been decreased from 60 to 50.

Bug Fixes

Fixed a bug where the Infestor's Neural Parasite ability could cause Reapers to lose the ability to move.
Fixed an issue that could use an incorrect HDR format on some ATI cards.
Fixed a crash that could happen on some ATI cards.

[CappinCanuck]

Woot, Terran buffs ftw. We needed it heh.

[Narradisall]

I've found it interesting, that the AI will *always* win with zerg when pitched against it's self.

I'm not saynig "zomg zerg overpowered". It's more just the AI always plays the zerg better. yeah, it's retard easy AI anyway, but it will never lose against another race (or combination of) with zerg.

[Hotcod]

actually lost a game today and got pressed in another one. I got beaten by 3 zealots, i'd simply not been used to some one getting a few out that quickly and didn't have my own units up in time.

Another game was a fun one which in some ways i shouldn't have won. T vs T and he just kept trying to drop in marrines then marrines and segie tanks in to my base after he found I'd blocked the choke... but my econ was so much stronger than his that i got to counter with thors... he didn't seem to have any expations (when i had 4) and he just kept beating on my main base even when it was clear I wasn't using it any more. In the end i just massed up a bunch of thors tanks and marines and stormed in to his. Good times.

[Narradisall]

Thank god they are adding some more people. I need more noobs to play with.

I actually won a game today! Marine and Zealot rushed.

I must say, I'm not enjoying the current way the ranked gameplay is working. My memory may be skewd but I recall SC1 games lasting a bit longer than 10-20 minutes.

Every game is, build base a certain way, econ, rush, win.

I miss the big fun 3v3's that lasted longer.

Also, micro is worthless mid to late game. Things just die too fast for anything to be of much effect.

[kyrieee]

People rushing a lot is part of the evolution of play. Rushes will be invented so that their counters can be found. Once people know how to defend against most rushes they will become less frequent

[boratika]

Thank god they are adding some more people. I need more noobs to play with.

I actually won a game today! Marine and Zealot rushed.

Heh, this sounds just like me. It pretty much went, play a game, get wiped out in an early rush, watch replay and copy that build order to prepared for such a rush, play a game, get wiped out by an stronger, earlier rush, rinse, repeat.

But, I won my first game today. Woo. Guy tried to rush me with zeglings, but I've learnt my lesson and had 3 gateways pumping out zealots. Game went on long enough for me to get some immortals out. It's novel enough if I last long enough to get stalkers out :o


I'm kinda surprised that I seem to be best with Protoss though, since they were by a rather wide margin my worst faction in the original.

edit: New years avatar was a bit out of date, so new avatar :D

[Narradisall]

Yeah, I know.

I'm starting to get better match ups. I was actually playing a really decent zerg player today. Constantly pushing.

We only won because his ally was worse than me.

[CappinCanuck]

Thank god they are adding some more people. I need more noobs to play with.

I actually won a game today! Marine and Zealot rushed.

I must say, I'm not enjoying the current way the ranked gameplay is working. My memory may be skewd but I recall SC1 games lasting a bit longer than 10-20 minutes.

Every game is, build base a certain way, econ, rush, win.

I miss the big fun 3v3's that lasted longer.

Also, micro is worthless mid to late game. Things just die too fast for anything to be of much effect.

Yeah, I know.

I'm starting to get better match ups. I was actually playing a really decent zerg player today. Constantly pushing.

We only won because his ally was worse than me.

They've stated that the matching, for right now, is on easy mode. It will find the quickest match, not the best, until they optimize the search times.

Consider that perhaps the games are getting longer, not because of better matchups, but because you are getting better? That being said, the game is currently much faster than SC1. So you'll never get the longer games from SC1 if they keep it like this. I've been playing SC1 to get ready and it seems to almost twice as fast. I haven't directly tested it more than once but what took me 6 minutes to do with SC1, took me 3 minutes with SC2. Getting a marine across the map took less than half the time. I don't know if they plan on this being standard though, I see there's an option for game speed -- there was also in SC1, but nobody ever used it.

The only reason I don't like the faster speed is that now a surprise drop, or jump, at the rear of the base can wipe half your base rather than a building even with your army just at the front of your base. It's just faster. It might not be a bad thing I suppose, they might just want the game to be faster. I had a guy jump 12 reapers into my base the other day, he took out 4 buildings even though my army engaged within 2-3 +1 (for reaction) seconds.

[CappinCanuck]

Anyone from NA playing a lot and interested in 2v2 primarily? I'm having trouble finding people consistently playing?

[Narradisall]

Yeah Cappin, I'm aware of how it works atm is intended for testing, matchmaking etc.

I'm hoping it does not stay this way in the final product though. As you said, a surprise attack can wipe your base before you can react. Also it kind of negates the whole point of micro. When everything dies so fast there is little or no room for you to micro individual groups. Which is a shame.

Also, fuck yeah, Broodlords are powerful. I hadn't given them a try until now. It was just a slaughter. Granded they have no anti air and are tier 3, but damn if you get those bad boys out they can do some damage.

[boratika]

I like this game much better now that I'm actually winning games :D and I was rather enjoying it even when it was just "how long can I survive". I can't give Blizzard my money fast enough.


I feel like I might actually become a reasonably competent player at this game.

I just really suck at fending off early air attacks at present. Well, not just early ones, but the early ones I usually don't survive at all. I got rushed by one, one warp ray today. I really need to get stalkers out earlier. And if they invest heavily in banshees I'm good as dead so far.



The only reason I don't like the faster speed is that now a surprise drop, or jump, at the rear of the base can wipe half your base rather than a building even with your army just at the front of your base. It's just faster. It might not be a bad thing I suppose, they might just want the game to be faster. I had a guy jump 12 reapers into my base the other day, he took out 4 buildings even though my army engaged within 2-3 +1 (for reaction) seconds.

Yeah, they really seemed to design the whole game around fast. The buildings dying so fast is a bit of a jarring change, but I think it's probably for the best. It's probably in no small part to dissuade turtling and get you on the offensive.

[OrangePulp]

Ghosts are retarded against protoss, I don't know how to deal with them. They basically nullify all counters to M3; no guardian shield from sentry, no psi storm, takes colossus and all my other units to half life. Unless I can get them with a surprise drop or warp in, I can't beat terran if they use ghosts. It's instant loss for me.

[Narradisall]

*Repeat post

So, I got an email today telling me to invite a friend.

Anyone else get these? Do fellow coggers who haven't got in yet want to shout out and maybe we can see if we can get more people on.

[Narradisall]

Looking through, I think the following are still waiting for keys?

Chaos Machine
violent
Jackle

[SonofSeth]

*Repeat post

So, I got an email today telling me to invite a friend.

Anyone else get these? Do fellow coggers who haven't got in yet want to shout out and maybe we can see if we can get more people on.

http://www.popartuk.com/g/l/lgfp1425+puss-in-boots-sad-eyes-shrek-2-poster.jpg

[OrangePulp]

Damn, no friend invite for me, at least yet.

[Narradisall]

Weird, I would have thought it was a general thing. I'll check to make sure its legit. (#edit - seems so, I thought it might be eu specific, but there seems to be no reason why it can't be used anywhere)

Sonofseth, wanted adding to the list, or just quoting me for epicness?

[SonofSeth]

Sonofseth, wanted adding to the list, or just quoting me for epicness?

I wants it, I needs it and I'm from the Old Continent too, so let's see how this works.

[Narradisall]

I wants it, I needs it and I'm from the Old Continent too, so let's see how this works.

Ok, chucking it to your PM in a sec

[SonofSeth]

Thanks a lot man, beta added to BNet and downloading as we speak. See you when I get there.

[Narradisall]

Thanks a lot man, beta added to BNet and downloading as we speak. See you when I get there.

Nope, you wont!

You get sent to the gateway your at, so I'm assuming your on the US server. Check the OP to see who is on that server. Only me and HotCod are on the EU one it seems.

[boratika]

Only me and HotCod are on the EU one it seems.

At least you aren't the only one... *cough*

[SonofSeth]

Nope, you wont!

You get sent to the gateway your at, so I'm assuming your on the US server. Check the OP to see who is on that server. Only me and HotCod are on the EU one it seems.


I'm in Europe, so I guess I'll end up on EU server. :p

I'll try to add you and HotCod when I get in.

[Narradisall]

At least you aren't the only one... *cough*

Phew, lucky you saved me from the Clannerdemon. Thankfully he is on the sever of unfathomable joy, while I'm stuck on the EU one.

Though thankfully they have added more people, theres around 10k online at peak times and a few thousand games going. Beats the 3k people online and 200 games going of a few weeks back.

[Narradisall]

I'm in Europe, so I guess I'll end up on EU server. :p

I'll try to add you and HotCod when I get in.

ON? Where the hells that. I assume whenever there's a two letter in caps explanation of where someone is its on of those heretical American states where they shorten it to two letters to shun us outsides from knowing their location.

[SonofSeth]

ON? Where the hells that. I assume whenever there's a two letter in caps explanation of where someone is its on of those heretical American states where they shorten it to two letters to shun us outsides from knowing their location.

Haha, that's just me trying to be clever. ON as in opposite from OFF :D

I know, I know...

Why is this download taking so long, at this rate I'll need to wait until tomorrow before I can play.

[Narradisall]

Its Bittorrent. Its meant to be slow.

There were other mirror places you could get it quicker. I do not recall where though. Try a quick google and see if you can find one.

Blizzards downloader has always been the suckage.

On the plus side, they are resetting all the users profiles, rankings and information soon for the new wave, and now there's a ton of people on, getting a game is so much easier.

FFA's still take some time to get going though...

[SonofSeth]

Oh man, good times a comin'

I was thinking about just torrenting it few weeks ago just in case, but I didn't. Now I'm on 66% and I'll just let it finish, I waited this long, I can wait couple more hours.

About the reset, I'm not so optimistic about that, all the silver gold and platinum players starting from scratch, ouch, at least until I get some experience.

[Narradisall]

You can always play against me, I suck.

[SonofSeth]

What race are you playing with, I'm usually Zerg in SC1?

[Narradisall]

I prefer Protoss, but I'm playing Terran a lot in 2. Protoss are rather sucky to me. Zerg are much better imo.

Narradisall.cog when you need to add me. If you post your tag it should get added to the OP.

[SonofSeth]

I'll try SonofSeth.cog, if it works, I will post it.

Hmm, Zerg+Protoss worked extremely well in SC1, ah, who am I kidding, I can't wait to try out all of them.

[violent]

I'm in thanks to Mr. Ten19. I'll set up my profile tonight and post.

[Narradisall]

So, just Jackle and Chaos Machine lacking access now?

[Jackel]

I got in thanks to iHap.

[ClannerDelta]

Just so people know, they were having problems if you had a key from a different region than yours, but they seem to be fixed now. So if you had issues earlier you should try again.

[Jackel]

Just so people know, they were having problems if you had a key from a different region than yours, but they seem to be fixed now. So if you had issues earlier you should try again.

I'm still having issues, the game keeps telling me I don't have starcraft 2 associated w/ my account.

[violent]

violent.violent

[Codicier]

So, just Jackle and Chaos Machine lacking access now?

Me as well! ...If anyone cares. :p

[Rogue_hunter]

Looking through, I think the following are still waiting for keys?

Chaos Machine
violent
Jackle

I'm still waiting on one too! /sniff

[kyrieee]

I don't have one either! ='(

Might be able to buy one though

[SonofSeth]

It's SonofSeth.cog on EU

[Loki]

If anyone wants to be so kind, I'm down with getting one ;)

[Karmakin]

Ditto. If anybody wants to be a nice person to me, I'd appreciate it.

[SonofSeth]

Anyone know what's the policy on playing the beta on different PCs, I got access to one not so great PC often and a great one not so often?

[blair]

I'm waiting for a key as well. So if someone has a spare invitation, it would be much appreciated.

[Narradisall]

Ah well, people have registered interest so I won't bother keeping a list.

If anyone has any spare keys just chuck em to people as they shout out I guess.

I'll add you tonight Seth. I was on late last night but I'll assume you didn't finish downloading till very late (at least you didn't exist when I logged off).

[Ten19]

Anyone know what's the policy on playing the beta on different PCs, I got access to one not so great PC often and a great one not so often?

I've installed the beta on two PCs now, and it's worked fine on both. I don't think they mind, assuming you're not logged into the same battle.net account at the same time.

[Dukefrukem]

doasdsadsadas

[Crashcart]

I got an e-mail I have an extra invite. First person to respond in this thread gets it.

I haven't been following this thread since I've been patiently waiting to get in via my b.net application, but I'm interested if there's still a key available.

[Narradisall]

Edit that out once you give the key away Duke, else the pitchforks will be lighting up! :D

You can have SCII on multiple PC's, but must be the same Bnet account and you can't share your account info (how they check that I dunno).

[CappinCanuck]

I got an e-mail I have an extra invite. First person to respond in this thread gets it.

Codicier and Rogue Hunter were next in line btw :P But, your key, your rules!


You can have SCII on multiple PC's, but must be the same Bnet account and you can't share your account info (how they check that I dunno).

Yeah, I was going to share my account with a friend until I found out that it was a no-no. I didn't think they would really care, I googled it before doing it, and apparently they do. As for separate PCs, that's fine. I've been using my Bnet on two pcs, desktop and laptop, for years without issue. The only issue is if they confuse you using 2 pcs with account sharing, which won't happen as long as you're using it in the same region. Like, if you're taking a trip to Asia or Europe, maybe don't boot up SC2 on your laptop while there :)

[Narradisall]

Yeah, thats what I didn't get. You can use different PC's, therefore different IP's. You can't share with a friend. How the hell would they know? Unless the regions, as you say, where drastically different.

Hell, you could just go oldschool and have a friend round to play it on your PC.

[ClannerDelta]

ClannerDelta.cog

I won my first game and wow am I so nub. I forgot how much zooming around the map SC required. No time to sit around looking at the fights. :(

[CappinCanuck]

Yeah, thats what I didn't get. You can use different PC's, therefore different IP's. You can't share with a friend. How the hell would they know? Unless the regions, as you say, where drastically different.

Hell, you could just go oldschool and have a friend round to play it on your PC.

They wouldn't know and plenty of people do it. But plenty of people get caught too because they give it to online friends that are farther away. I for one didn't end up doing it even though my buddy lives down the street so I'd be immune heh. I don't think inviting a friend over to play it is against the rules though :).

[CappinCanuck]

Btw, gonna steam add and in-game add the new users to get some more sc2 gaming in. Love me the 2v2s.

Clanner Delta, Jackel and Violent are the only new additions?

[Dukefrukem]

Codicier and Rogue Hunter were next in line btw :P But, your key, your rules!


That's what I should have done. :(

Fuck me.

[Banacek]

Has anyone gotten a Beta for OSX yet, or has it just been Windows?

[blair]

According to 1up (http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3178363) the mac beta starts in april, so one might have to rely on bootcamp.

[Banacek]

According to 1up (http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3178363) the mac beta starts in april, so one might have to rely on bootcamp.

Oh ok, my Beta preferences are set to Mac on Battle.net. Hopefully I'll get a beta invite next month.

[SonofSeth]

Ah well, people have registered interest so I won't bother keeping a list.

If anyone has any spare keys just chuck em to people as they shout out I guess.

I'll add you tonight Seth. I was on late last night but I'll assume you didn't finish downloading till very late (at least you didn't exist when I logged off).

I added you today, see you actually win some, that's far better than me for now. At least each time I loose "better" I guess, last time I even managed to deflect the first attacking force, too bad he had reinforcements on route.

[CappinCanuck]

Ten, can we get an update to the OP when you get a chance?

[boratika]

I added you today, see you actually win some, that's far better than me for now. At least each time I loose "better" I guess, last time I even managed to deflect the first attacking force, too bad he had reinforcements on route.

Make sure you watch the replays to see how they beat you. Well, at least if they are playing the same race as you.

[Ten19]

Ten, can we get an update to the OP when you get a chance?

I updated an hour ago, actually. Looks like I missed SonOfSeth, so I added him. Anyone else?

[CappinCanuck]

I updated an hour ago, actually. Looks like I missed SonOfSeth, so I added him. Anyone else?

Ah, so you did. My apologies. You're too organized, I didn't realize it was listed alphabetically until I looked again. I like your style, Ten19!

[Scull]

Hey yeah, if there are any extra keys floating about, I'd truly love to get on this.

[DeathtollWRX]

Cool, my friend sent me a beta key!! Looks like i'll be playing SC2!!!! Beta!

[diablopath]

I just want to say that I hate all of you.
I want in on this so bad it hurts.

I got the client, and got the crack to play against AI.
But, it's just not the same.

[Lance Uppercut]

I'm getting up on this bitch, hopefully with a beta key at the end of this. Hook me up!

[Pigeon]

I'm still hoping a friendly sort might toss me a beta key.

[CappinCanuck]

Would anyone be interested in me making a Steam group for the SC2 Coggers?

I find it tough to remember everyone who has the beta and keeping track of who's online/offline and such, and of course there's always people you don't have on your list.

With a group, if we were interested in playing some team matches, you could just make an event to see who's up for a game.

[OrangePulp]

Sounds like a plan.

[kyrieee]

This is getting ridiculous. 13 out of my last 15 games have been ZvZ =/

[SonofSeth]

I love playing as zerg but for some reason I hate playing zvz.

Love playing against Terran though, things go boom then.

[Narradisall]

Imo Zerg are the most powerful race if you can play them well enough. Terrans are a close runner up and Protoss are lagging beind a bit.

I haven't been getting to play this much recently, damned work!

[CappinCanuck]

Imo Zerg are the most powerful race if you can play them well enough. Terrans are a close runner up and Protoss are lagging beind a bit.

I haven't been getting to play this much recently, damned work!

I think the balance is very good so far. I don't think Zerg are that powerful at all. They've got one strat that's very powerful atm, the roaches. But it's just an evolution. Once people learn to counter it well, it'll get less powerful and less popular. Then there will be something else. Protoss are still very powerful. It's just that not many people play them to their full potential. I rarely see Reavers or Psi Storms, which I should see a lot of playing as Zerg or Terran.

[Narradisall]

I think the balance is very good so far. I don't think Zerg are that powerful at all. They've got one strat that's very powerful atm, the roaches. But it's just an evolution. Once people learn to counter it well, it'll get less powerful and less popular. Then there will be something else. Protoss are still very powerful. It's just that not many people play them to their full potential. I rarely see Reavers or Psi Storms, which I should see a lot of playing as Zerg or Terran.

Oh I'm not saying they are imbalanced, I do think Blizzard do balance better than anyone, I just think zerg have a bit of an edge over the other two so far.

Muta's, Broodlords are tough and Nydus canals can do sick early damage. Sure there are counters I just think they are popular because they have a few edges that are easy to use and very effective.

Protoss probably require the most micro out of all the races, and imo are one of the races (also my fav) that play more like i would expect out of a SC game. I would agree they are not used to their full potential. All I've seen of Protoss is early Zealots or a quick tech to Mothership (pre-nerf though).

I understand your viewpoint that there are (or should be) effective counters for everything, I just don't think the balance is perfectly there. Yet.

#Edit - I actually find Terran v Terran to be the most fun matchups. You can really go to town on throwing completely different unit combo's and tactics at each other and it's easy to change battleplans on the fly. Those have been my most fun games.

[Loki]

Oh I'm not saying they are imbalanced, I do think Blizzard do balance better than anyone, I just think zerg have a bit of an edge over the other two so far.

Muta's, Broodlords are tough and Nydus canals can do sick early damage. Sure there are counters I just think they are popular because they have a few edges that are easy to use and very effective.

Protoss probably require the most micro out of all the races, and imo are one of the races (also my fav) that play more like i would expect out of a SC game. I would agree they are not used to their full potential. All I've seen of Protoss is early Zealots or a quick tech to Mothership (pre-nerf though).

I understand your viewpoint that there are (or should be) effective counters for everything, I just don't think the balance is perfectly there. Yet.

#Edit - I actually find Terran v Terran to be the most fun matchups. You can really go to town on throwing completely different unit combo's and tactics at each other and it's easy to change battleplans on the fly. Those have been my most fun games.

I've been watching some of the TvT on youtube and it they are pretty awesome. Having some Thor's annihlate some set of tank armies then taken out by the StarCraft Gundams. Rinse and repeat. Good stuff.

[DeathtollWRX]

Hey guys add me

Deathtoll.deathtoll

[OrangePulp]

Ladder reset, so you have to go remake your game name and all that jazz. Placement matches are down to 5.

I played my worst race, Terran, hoping to tank my rating so that I could actually get some practice in as Terran, rather than being stomped by people. Turns out the joke is on me, because I won all 5 and got placed in platinum. The issue being that none of my opponents were above silver ranking, and I'm definitely not a platinum-calibre player. With my best race, Toss, I might've been able to move up to low gold if I had really put a lot of games in.

At this point I'm wondering if they're purposefully going with less qualifying matches so that people aren't matched accurately, to allow them to further test how their system handles moving people between leagues.

[kyrieee]

I lost twice and got put into silver, so I guess it just drops you one division for every game you lost. The people I played were unranked, kind of a crappy system atm.

[CappinCanuck]

I lost twice and got put into silver, so I guess it just drops you one division for every game you lost. The people I played were unranked, kind of a crappy system atm.

Not really, you lost to unranked :P That's on you, heh. But anyway, it's bound to happen at a ladder reset. And it's bound to happen a few more times before release too. It will probably happen every time they make changes to the system.

Before the reset, me and another guy (a platinum league player) played another platinum league pair. One guy was down in bronze though, he just exits the game before they win. Damn ringers :P Either way, who cares about some loses or league. You'll get to where you have to get with every win or loss.

[CappinCanuck]

I remade my char after the wipe, it's now CappinCanuck.CoG, to follow suit with everyone else :). I tried readding everyone, but most people haven't remade their characters, so I suggest waiting a few days before going through the list.

[OrangePulp]

My account is the same as it was; I'll see about getting you re-added, canuck.

[CappinCanuck]

My account is the same as it was; I'll see about getting you re-added, canuck.

Oh, I know some people remade it already :) I'm just saying that if you're going to print off the list and go through everyone, wait a bit. But I'll get you added pulp, you're on quite a bit!

[diablopath]

Does anybody have any idea as to when they'll start inviting more people? I still haven't had any luck =[

[Ten19]

Reset the OP, moved all the previous names to a spoiler tag. Post here if you have the same (or different) tag, and I'll update it accordingly.

[Ten19]

Does anybody have any idea as to when they'll start inviting more people? I still haven't had any luck =[

The only way we typically find out is after they start the waves of invites. Be patient, and keep your ear to the CoG!

[CappinCanuck]

Reset the OP, moved all the previous names to a spoiler tag. Post here if you have the same (or different) tag, and I'll update it accordingly.

You missed me in the Spoiler tag wrap :) And it's CappinCanuck.cog now.

[SonofSeth]

Still the same, SonofSeth.cog on EU bnet

[ClannerDelta]

ClannerDelta.cog

[Narradisall]

I gotta get back on this.... damned life getting in the way of my gaming time!

[kyrieee]

Here's a quite reliable, almost cheese, build order in ZvT

9 Overlord
14 Pool
13 Extractor
Drones until 15
3 Drones on gas when it finishes
Queen when pool is done
Ling speed with first 100 gas
Baneling nest with next 50 gas

When you're at about 30+ supply morph 5 banelings, blow up is supply depo block and run over him with speedlings (keep making more lings while you're attacking). If he hasn't blocked off with supply depos then you'll have to scout that and try something else!

[Narradisall]

Well I got mine set back up, started my first placing match in 2v2.

Game starts, my ally times out. Great.

So I lube up and get ready... I spam up to tech, spit out some roaches and decide I'm going to fighting. I canal into one base and attack.... his whole one refinery and small base. Wipeout, with his airborn bases running. I then proceed to run over the other base, but they keep making bases. I swear I came across a total of 40-50 marines opposing me in the whole game,, yet destroyed about 200+ base units. Heck they were up to spaceports, and I only ever saw one viking!

Once I had my mutalisks out it was gg. Still, I NEVER expected to win that.

The AI was shit, just collected minerals and built nothing. You would hope in the final build they would replace it with a hard AI or something, to, you know, help.

[OrangePulp]

14 pool is pretty late; if I saw someone that late, I'd go double (or triple) rax and just swarm him with marines. Alternatively, build a bunker outside his base and pin him.

[SonofSeth]

I just had the most interesting ZvT on Blistering Sands. First I went in with lings roaches but he toasted me with helions and black rockit guys, then I quick tech to mutas and scared him away, little visit to his mineral line but I got scared away with his vikings.

By that time I had huge amount of minerals compared to gas and in my muta field trip I opened up the back door to his base so I just sent wave after wave of lings directly to his base and all he had were few marines, 7-8 vikings and lots lots turrets.

Terran buildings burn so pretty.

[diablopath]

I like how people are starting to see the strengths of a lot of these skills. Force field, for instance:

m_TIDLHzAkM

[SonofSeth]

Yeah, that was some impressive micro.

[Narradisall]

I got back from the pub, rather drunk, and had the most hilarious game.

2v2 - Me terran, with zerg, them terran x 2. (custom game I think).

So the game starts and I churn out SCV's, then another quick base to churn out even more SCV's to an expansion. All the while typing drunken things like "FAER I CUMN!". So drunken me decides a few minutes into the game, the best tactic to try and win....

SCV rush.

So 40 odd SCV's go flying out my base and into the nearest terrans. At this point (rather early) he has only run off around 2 marines, who get zapped to death. There is then a crazy wierd SCV battle in his base, which he wins.... only to have more of my SCV's turn up.

Fast forward a few minutes, and I'm still sending Wave after Wave of SCV's at him whilst typing random stuff. My ally is confused/laughing his ass off and fortunately kicking the other terrans ass with his zerg. I think it was only around 10 minutes into the game when I had over 100 SCV's zapping his base and he lifted off, by which time the zerg had polished off the other terran and it was GG.

I got to find a way to upload these things.

[ClannerDelta]

I got to find a way to upload these things.


Here's (http://www.gamereplays.org/starcraft2/replays.php?game=33&show=details&id=117647) my joke replay to accompany yours.

GameReplays (http://www.gamereplays.org/starcraft2/) is a good place to upload.

[Narradisall]

Here's (http://www.gamereplays.org/starcraft2/replays.php?game=33&show=details&id=117647) my joke replay to accompany yours.

GameReplays (http://www.gamereplays.org/starcraft2/) is a good place to upload.

I can't seem to get it to work, maybe that's because I'm on the work servers at present. I'll give it a check tonight.

I'll have to see how you upload these and get mine posted too. Does it save custom games? I know I've got the match I shouldn't have won saved since I rewatched it to figure out what the hell they were doing all the time.

[ClannerDelta]

Don't know if it saves customs. Could still check your recent folder.

[Narradisall]

Alas, it does not save customs. I was going to upload the funny 2v1 win I managed to pull out, but cba to make up an account. I did watch your one probe win though, hilarious.

I figured out why I won that game though, in 26 minutes of play, only one of them built any army units, and all he managed was 20 odd marines and 2 vikings.

[Narradisall]

I somehow ended up in the Silver league on 2v2s now. I miss my crappy bronze league allies.

Also, I have an awesome ability to miss SonofSeth by about 30 minutes, every. time.

[SonofSeth]

It's uncanny, isn't it?

Ah well, I'm all over the top 20 spots in copper 1v1. Matchmaking is a beautiful, but cruel and unforgiving mistress, if by any chance I go on a streak and win a few in a row it quickly puts me back to my rightful place by making me lose games in a row until I rage quit for the day.

Also banelings, banelings, banelings, did you know you can put unburrow on autocast? It's, it's just the bestest.

[boratika]

Also banelings, banelings, banelings, did you know you can put unburrow on autocast? It's, it's just the bestest.

Quiet you. Don't make people know this.

[Narradisall]

Holy shit, that is awesome to know. MINEFIELD TIME!!!

I am sad though as my favourtie zerg unit was always the Hydralisks, and unless I really need ground anti air, which is rare since I usually have the ability to knock out mutalisks at that point, I never use them.

[ClannerDelta]

I am sad though as my favourtie zerg unit was always the Hydralisks, and unless I really need ground anti air, which is rare since I usually have the ability to knock out mutalisks at that point, I never use them.

You're doing it wrong. :p

Roach/baneling/hydralisk combo. It'll give a MMM ball a run for its money.

[Narradisall]

I am probably underusing Hydra's and Banelings. In fact I don't think I've used a baneling in MP once....

I swear Hydra's didn't used to be so bloody slow though.

[ClannerDelta]

I am probably underusing Hydra's and Banelings. In fact I don't think I've used a baneling in MP once....

I swear Hydra's didn't used to be so bloody slow though.

Overlords and the Queen tumors. Use them to make highways of creep. The slowness also helps keep them BEHIND the Roaches without a lot of micro. Small moves keep them clustered correctly.

[Narradisall]

I just like speedlings, so fast, weeeeeee!

I'm a terrible player, just generally throwing a variety of zerg at every point of the base until something cracks. I wish I could play on the bloody US servers though...

[ClannerDelta]

I just like speedlings, so fast, weeeeeee!

I'm a terrible player, just generally throwing a variety of zerg at every point of the base until something cracks. I wish I could play on the bloody US servers though...

Yeah, that does suck. Your shitty Zerg skills and my horrible Terran skills would combine in a perfect storm of excrement.

[CappinCanuck]

Yeah, that does suck. Your shitty Zerg skills and my horrible Terran skills would combine in a perfect storm of excrement.

You should post our probe defence match replay. Classic.

:)

Ps. I've been looking for you a few days to get some games in, but I keep missing you or finding you on at the wrong times. But soon!

[Hotcod]

I really need to start playing again, i've been watching some of the shout cast matches by total biscuit on youtube, it's really cool seeing good players going at it with some fun commentary along side it. His i suck at SC2 videos are rather fun too.

[SonofSeth]

I like watching those shoutcasts too. The only problem is when I go play after watching, my games seem so boring and uninspired after that.

Damn you stubby fingers, I'll never be able to micro properly, so even if I come up with anything resembling a strategy it all falls apart in execution.

[Hotcod]

the thing i'm not good at is adapting, i can plan, scout a little and get an idea of what they've got but I just plow on with my ideas anyway

[boratika]

Damn you stubby fingers, I'll never be able to micro properly, so even if I come up with anything resembling a strategy it all falls apart in execution.

I know how you feel. Earlier tonight I pulled the sweet move of psionic storming my own zealots as they charged in :o. And then my templars wandered into the melee and got torn to shreds by ultralisks. On ballance I think the storms did a bit more damage to his units then mine...so it was a partial success.

[Narradisall]

Damn thread moving! I thought we'd lost the PC forum for a second.

I've started playing Terran now, I do enjoy playing them a lot more.

I really wish they would open 3v3 or 4v4's up though. I find in 1v1 or even 2v2's the game is over in 10-20 minutes if your doing it right.

Also, I wish I'd deliberately faffed the first 5 placement matches. I want to be back in the copper league! I'm slowely climbing the silver atm when I want to be able to just mess around and wallow in testing idea's without having to use chokepoints, build counters before I even get the attack etc. I did have an awesome Protoss/Terran assault base and marine/zealot double pumping at my base. Somehow I held them off while my ally slaughtered their bases.

[ShivaX]

Playing this a bit has reminded me how much I truely hate this kind of gameplay anymore.

3 dudes show up in my base and kill it before I can do anything? Great!

I mean taking out buildings is so fast that you lose a skirmish anywhere and the game is over. Really, really not at all fun to me anymore. Not to mention it defaults to stupid looking speed, which is just kind of annoying.

Base defenses are just funny. I built a couple to see how they worked and they couldn't kill a single unit between the both of em. 5 zealots walked in and took them both out without any losses and then killed all my tech structures before I could kill them off.

[SonofSeth]

Surely, it must be the games fault.

[ClannerDelta]

Surely, it must be the games fault.

Buildings die fast and most of the games end in a rush. It's been that way since SC1 and he's right. This style of gameplay isn't for him. To be honest, it's not really for me. SC2 is just so well done, good looking, and nostalgic that it offsets my natural loathing for basebuilding RTSs.

[kyrieee]

Base defenses are just funny. I built a couple to see how they worked and they couldn't kill a single unit between the both of em. 5 zealots walked in and took them both out without any losses and then killed all my tech structures before I could kill them off.

Five zealots is quite a lot. Money wise it's equivalent to 20 zerglings.

The game is a constant balance between having enough forces to defend and still advancing your economy. If three dudes show up in your base and kill you before you have anything then learn from that in your next game and start producing combat units earlier! You have more time to build units than your opponent if he's attacking since his units have to travel across the map

[Satertek]

Just got my invite, played like 6 hours straight. Never played Starcraft 1, and I actually don't even own any Blizzard games (yes, hate me! :P), but so far I'm really loving it. Playing Zerg pretty much exclusively, I love spreading out and making fast expansions in RTSes.

Name is Satertek.satertek. Add meh.
(Don't really understand why they asked for a nick twice...)

[Narradisall]

Yeah the speed is a bitch, but SC was never really about the base turtling.

Which as a HUGE turtle fan makes forces me to play offensively.

The speed does kill it for me. I would much prefer strong bases and a slightly slower speed so that base defense can be a bit more effective, rather than you getting screwed if they get in your base.

[SonofSeth]

Oh man, Thor is so awesome. I started playing random recently and every time I get Terran I get some marines, maybe try some reapers to kill probes if I'm against protoss, but then it's Thor time. I don't know if it's the size of that thing or what, but if the other guy doesn't kill me until then, as soon as he sees the Thor knocking on his door he just leaves. I don't know, maybe it's the size of the thing, it's so intimidating.

Hahaha, it's so fun, and oh so much fun when we are TvT and the other dude goes banshees and runs into my Thors. Also, I always sent 5-6 SCVs to repair them, but man oh man, anti air range on that bad boy is just insane, almost from from one side of my base to the other.

[diablopath]

Hurrah. I got a beta invite this morning!

diablopath.cog

Will add everybody.

[CappinCanuck]

Another round of invites? That's exciting!

[AliasRomanian]

you guys are lucky :)

[Pigeon]

Very lucky. Punks

[OrangePulp]

Thor is... terrible. It has it's uses, occasionally, but I've never seen it truly be effective other than in a proxy factory build (which is hilarious). It's too big, cumbersome, and slow, to really be of much use in most games.

[Lance Uppercut]

So uhh, are people still giving away invites? I still want one :/

[Pigeon]

We should start a SC2 code beggars thread

[SonofSeth]

Thor is... terrible. It has it's uses, occasionally, but I've never seen it truly be effective other than in a proxy factory build (which is hilarious). It's too big, cumbersome, and slow, to really be of much use in most games.

Blasphemy, respect the Thor!

[Narradisall]

I have to say, Thor's are fun, but they are just too big. They tend to get in the way of the rest of my forces.

[Satertek]

http://www.sc2rc.com/index.php/replay/show/1902

My most bizzare game thus far, I'm proud of this :)

[OrangePulp]

http://www.sc2rc.com/index.php/replay/show/1902

My most bizzare game thus far, I'm proud of this :)

That guy you were playing was really strange. It felt to me like he did a lot of studying early game build orders and such, without really understanding things. The early wall-in vs a 10pool zerg is a nice touch, and he had great timing on that 3gate push, but then he does things like never expand when he has map control, and doesn't even get his second vespene. Then the suicide dive into your base against all those spine crawlers, I think that kinda sealed the deal.

I was surprised to see you lose a hatch without cancelling it not once, but twice. Perhaps part of a master plan to lure him into a false sense of security?

[Satertek]

Probably didn't even realize I could cancel, I've watched it a few times to go over all my mistakes, as I try to do for all my games, and in that game I made a ton of em, but still find it entertaining.

Just today I discovered the joy of binding the queen and the hatchery together so I can do the spawn larva ability anywhere on the map, and trying to develop a rhythm for keeping them all going.

But yea, tip for anyone trying to improve, watch your replays, catch all the mistakes you make and consider what you could have done better throughout.

[boratika]

Well, if we're sharing pyrrhic victories that just shouldn't have happened, here's one:

http://www.sc2rc.com/index.php/replay/show/1926 (I'm Uke)

This is how well I play first thing after getting up in the morning. Yeah, not terribly well. Especially how I consistently leave my sentries behind. Also make sure to keep an eye on how much resources each of us has.

[Narradisall]

Oh and if Ten19 reads this, I am still Narradisall.cog on the EU servers.

I'm hoping to get some game time in.... soon. Damned busy schedule! Why now!

[Squidbot]

Just in case you gentlemen missed it (http://forums.battle.net/thread.html?topicId=23094049324&sid=5000#12):
In the near future, we will be doing a full reset of the beta database. This reset will wipe the following information for all players:

Character and identifier
Friends list
Profile
League placement
Ladder rank

Due to the amount of people currently participating in the beta, this database reset will allow us to monitor and test conditions similar to a game release (albeit smaller). We want to thank everyone for their patience and continued help and support in testing StarCraft II.

[OrangePulp]

Galaxy is coming with the reset, so that's badass.

[boratika]

That is indeed badass.

[Narradisall]

Galaxy's coming? Oh yeah.

I am mostly excited for the MP purely based on all the awesome things people will do with that. I played the custom in SC1 more than anything else due to the pure levels of great games people could come up with, and with the improvements they've made on that.....

[Lance Uppercut]

http://kotaku.com/5521097/gamestop-has-your-starcraft-ii-beta-invite?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+kotaku%2Ffull+%28Kotaku%29

Apparently if you preorder the game from Gamestop now, you get beta access.

And as much as I hate the fact that it's gonna cost me $60, I want this so bad. Damn you ActiBlizzard.

[CappinCanuck]

Hopefully we'll have some more people to add to that list now :). There's never enough people around to play with.

[Acidpoptart]

I just received a key from Amazon for my Pre-order from them! Keep an eye out: Many retailers may be offering keys with orders.

[OrangePulp]

Patch is out, although I'm having some kind of looping issue (and apparently I'm not the only one), so I can't get in yet. But with Galaxy and more players because of pre-order beta codes, SC2 beta just got a whole lot better.

[AliasRomanian]

okay i just got my key. I can't wait to play tonight :). . . but L4D2 LCD just came out . . .sigh.

[Lance Uppercut]

Patch is out, although I'm having some kind of looping issue (and apparently I'm not the only one), so I can't get in yet. But with Galaxy and more players because of pre-order beta codes, SC2 beta just got a whole lot better.

I'm having the same problem. :mad:

[OrangePulp]

Problem was fixed for me, but if you're still having the issue, go into the SC2 beta's install folder, then to Support; there should be a SC2Switcher.exe you can run, that skips the patch phase and boots right into battlenet.

Right now I'm waiting on their hotfix for a bug with zerg lava; Right now, when you cancel a unit that's building, it reverts to a larva. I'm sure this is an intended feature, but what's broken right now is that you can start building some units, more larva will spawn, then cancel those units and end up with more than 3 larva. Combine this with a 6 pool, and you get 10-12 zergling in your base before you can really do anything about it. Fortunately, the hotfix is supposed to release sometime today.

[Lance Uppercut]

I'm in. Call me LUppercut.cog

p.s. i suck reaally bad cuz i haven't played seriously since high school and i don't know where all the hotkeys are :(

[zarathstra]

Hey guys, just got the beta installed earlier this afternoon. Name is Adama.tszarathstra

[SonofSeth]

Changed my ID from SonofSeth.cog to Saarth.brood on EU bnet.

[Loki]

Mine's loki.loki

[Narradisall]

Wow, zergling rushes every game now it seems.

I have yet to see a zerg player not throw 6 lings at me within the first 2 mins of the game.

[Pigeon]

I'm in now, pigeon.cog

[zarathstra]

Argh. I got the thing on Friday, but have had 0 time to play it. I have a job interview tomorrow (wish me luck), so hopefully Tuesday I'll be back in town and ready to play.

[OrangePulp]

Anyone interested in watching replays, you might want to check out the finals of the latest zotac cup. Watched them live with commentary thanks to a link from cp, and it's really a pretty amusing set of games. At one point one guy accuses the other of cheating (alt-tabbing to check the livestream), and the next game is just really crazy.

[Satertek]

Anyone interested in watching replays, you might want to check out the finals of the latest zotac cup. Watched them live with commentary thanks to a link from cp, and it's really a pretty amusing set of games. At one point one guy accuses the other of cheating (alt-tabbing to check the livestream), and the next game is just really crazy.

Yea I'm kinda surprised they do those live streams in real-time. It would be a huge advantage to even have the audio on in the background.

Seems like they should have everything set to delay 5-10 minutes.

[Narradisall]

Got a link to those cup replays? I'll have to check them out later when I'm at a computer.

I had a really long game last night where in the end my team mate left. I still manages to win though purely as a battle of attrition. They had no expansions and they noticed too late I'd set up camp in their yellow mineral patch on the other side of the map

[Satertek]

Been playing with the editor a bit, made a quick map this morning:

xu9E91dhNN0

A never ending zerg rush :) Fun stuff.

Edit: Set supply depot HP to 100k, lol:

http://imgur.com/8vevr.jpg (http://imgur.com/8vevr.jpg)

[Narradisall]

That DOES look fun.

I really need to put some time into learning this proper. I'd love to get into the map making scene.

[boratika]

Edit: Set supply depot HP to 100k, lol:

I like the mini-map.

[ClannerDelta]

I remember a custom map kind of like that. Where you had 4(?) terran players on a little metallic plateau and you had to use your limited resources and build space to try and survive wave after wave of zerg forces.

Man, that was a lot of fun.

[DiBiddilyBop]

I'm in the beta and getting my ass handed to me. wolf.mecca for anyone who wants to add me and kick me a round a bit.

[AliasRomanian]

I'm in the beta and getting my ass handed to me. wolf.mecca for anyone who wants to add me and kick me a round a bit.

I'll add you as i'm getting my ass handed to me as well :). stigs.alias :)

[Narradisall]

God, I really hate the region locking.

One of the main things I dislike about the new b-net.

[CappinCanuck]

Any new scenarios on bnet yet? Is it even possible to upload editor maps now?

[Satertek]

Any new scenarios on bnet yet? Is it even possible to upload editor maps now?

No, but a few new maps came with patch 9. Mostly 2v2 maps.

Ability to play custom maps is supposedly coming with the next patch.