The Glade 4.0

I have no interest in playing a RTS online after seeing that.

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Holy shitsnacks!

SC2 does a good job of easing you into the true madness that is SC2. The single player campaign has eased me into unit production, giving you a few units at a time to get familiar with. Honestly, the only thing I didn't really like is that after learning a bit about the game I tried to play against the AI, and had gotten used to my upgraded units (i.e. my bunker holds 6, has a turret, etc). So I was counting on perks that weren't there.

I wasn't seeing the real insanity until I got into a multiplayer game against the AI with the full tech trees. All of a sudden I had 3 times the number of SCV's created, tons more resources, and full tech trees to figure out on the fly.

Still fun, even though I suck at it.

Yeah. I hope some of the campaign upgrades go into the game when the expansions come out (and thus other races have campaign upgrades, too)...

I'd love to be able to research the bunker guns or build the Perdition turret... Lack of supply-less static ground defense is my #1 beef with Terran. I'd mind it a bit less if bunkers went down faster and could thus truly be used offensively (now that they're salvageable), but they don't, so you're still stuck dropping a bunker down and then trying to kite stuff back to it, which doesn't seem useful enough to trade off having to stick guys in it to have any effect.

That and I hope the Hercules, Diamondback, and either the Firebat or Science vessel make it in as expansion units. I'm pretty sure the expansions are going to do the Brood War thing and add a unit or two each, and it makes sense that they'd draw from the campaign(s) to do so; I just love the Hercules and Diamondbacks pretty hard. And I've been dying for a non-SCV repair unit, so I'm really smacking my lips in anticipation of the next couple Protoss research points.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

And don't even mention running out of resources and having to move your base!

Huh? That's an advantage, man! But it has nothing to do with the defensive structure asymmetrical balance, so I didn't bring it up.

I do find that multiplayer games rarely make that relevant, however, unless you're talking ground-only forces base-trading you so you can force a stalemate..

In other news, I'm almost done with the Prophecy missions, and I'll be glad to get the Protoss portion out of the way. Gimme mah Terrans back! At least I'll have researched up some new units/upgrades from 'em, though.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

I just meant if you had a bunch of bunkers built, you lose them moving the command center!

I miss my single player buffed bunkers.

Dude.. Salvage them if you relocate all your crap. Get some money back from them. That's more than Protoss can do (though Zerg can uproot and bring their stuff to an expansion if they want -- but all their tech-enabling buildings are at the original location, so...), so I don't get the complaining there. =)

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

But it's so much work, and I'm feeling all lazy at the moment. Any building that can't take off and move with the rest of my base is a slacker. There, I said it.

Speaking of lazy, when do I get my orbital supply drops in multiplayer? I don't pay enough attention to my supply use past the first 2 or 3 depots. "Not enough supply depots." "Dammit, now my starport/factory's gonna sit idle and I want that Battlecruiser/Siege Tank yesterday!"

What really makes me grind my teeth is when the reactored buildings sit there taunting me with two units simultaneously not being built because I'm out of supply...

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

I'm kind curious Kaffis...at what point did you have to switch from hard to normal? I'm 10 missions in and I still haven't had a major problem(well, aside from trying to kite that **** brutalisk into the lava since I missed that achievement on normal. What an *******).

Also, you have the orbital drop in the form of adding more supply to your existing depots in multiplayer already. At the low cost of 50 energy. Of course that energy could be used to drop another MULE or scan, but...it's there.

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Los Angeles Kings 2014 Stanley Cup Champions

"I love this **** team right here."
-Jonathan Quick

10+ Brood Lords + 10+ Carriers = a LOT of units on the screen. Brood Lords in general are fun to mass. They're a pain in the butt to tech to, though.

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APM gets a little much credit. As you remember to manage more stuff that you need to do, your APM goes up naturally. Pros tend to spam clicks to warm up, but a lot of APM is spamming and not them really doing something.

You don't have to be an azn robot to be good at RTS games.

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"...the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?" -Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Well, it's more an issue of saving my sanity and progressing the story at a decent clip rather than playing a mission through 3 or 4 times than "having" to switch. I think I ran 4 or 5 missions on Hard before settling into Normal. When I remember to look at the achievements, getting the Normal one and the secondary completion objectives has been fairly routine.. except that I suck as Protoss, and this isn't news to me, so I've been missing a handful of achievements.

I also think that, as I go through the missions some and see what they involve, the order I ran some of them in probably made a few of the ones I was struggling on Hard tougher. I did the first colonist mission immediately after leaving Mar Sara, before Smash and Grab, for instance, so no Marauders to hit the Roaches, and I think I hadn't opted for bunker capacity at that point.

More recently, I ran the Moebius Factor before getting Vikings, and that almost screwed me on *normal*, 'cause I didn't have any anti-air escorts as I was sneaking my way around Spore Crawlers to hit the last data repository thingy. I sent 4 Medivacs and a Hercules, and the Medivacs all got eaten by Mutalisks that caught me on the way when I wasn't over a viable drop site to dump my marines. The Herc's cargo proved plenty sufficient, though, when I got there.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

Yeah, having no Vikings for that level would be pretty tough even on normal. I had a hell of a time doing it on normal and I don't even know how I'm going to get the achievement(to beat the level before Kerrigan destroys 6 buildings?!?! WTF?!?!).

So far, the level that gave me the most trouble on hard was Media Blitz. But only because you have to beat it in 20 minutes. First time I hit 20:55. I was pretty pissed off. Second time was 20:53. Third was 20:09. Really started raging at that point. I finally got it on the fourth try with 19:57.

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Los Angeles Kings 2014 Stanley Cup Champions

"I love this **** team right here."
-Jonathan Quick

I had a bug in my first playthrough where I couldnt build ANYTHING except Medivacs (no SCVs, no nothing)... I thought you had to do the mission picking up all the mercs and use them...

I ended up loading an old autosave and redoing the mission... thankfully it was normal >_>

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By the way, I sided with the protoss this time for Haven's Fall and the cinematic was way more awesome than the cinematic for Safe Haven.

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Los Angeles Kings 2014 Stanley Cup Champions

"I love this **** team right here."
-Jonathan Quick

Gorram "new Blizzard game" bug keeps biting...I want to buy it, even though I know I wouldn't play it. Why don't they just come out with a damn demo to sate me? Grr.

I have a 7 hour trial pass if you want it. You'll need to get the client yourself, but it's a CD key (sorta) that will allow you to play the game for 7 hours worth of play time. Not sure if that playtime is feature limited or not.

Btw, if you want to download the client, it's a 10 or 11gb torrent.

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OMG! Please!

PM sent.

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The single player is worth a buy in its own right, and shouldn't require much in the way of serious RTS chops on casual difficulty. The story, and interesting game design (this, from the guy who hates resource gathering and loves strategy/tactical games that strip it entirely) comprising the actual campaign levels is pretty awesome and worth the price of admission.

Couple that with the map editor/access to custom maps (many of which will be tower defense or DOTA style endeavors, I'm sure, again, eliminating resources entirely), and I think it's a good buy even if you hate the "gather resources, build a base" mode of play.

The game is also pretty decent at offering learning tools to help you develop good habits for multiplayer, if you do choose to give it a shot. The challenges, and some of the single player missions, are all excellent teaching methods for things like wounded unit management, rapid rush defense build orders, and utilizing efficient unit matchups to maximize damage and minimze losses.

Besides, custom games with friends designed to either play at a less-than-internet average competitive level with other similar buddies, or to gang up and roll over a couple computers, are fun. Starcraft 2, with its nice unit detail and zoomable camera, can be QUITE an impressive spectacle for spectacle's sake.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

In my dalliances with Warcraft 3, it was really the resource-gathering that confused and infuriated me (along with the concept of 'wuv!' With an Earth 'w'!). I love the idea of setting up an army and then watching them decimate an enemy, though. Maybe this trial will sway me.

Not sure if this is common knowledge or has been mentioned here already but I've found these Day[9] videos to be extremely helpful and entertaining. Specifically the one below that discusses the basics. It's 10 parts, very long but I liked it. He talks about APM and how it's not the be all end all of Starcraft. His take away points for those who dont want to bother are:

1. Keep your money low
2. Have a basic strategy for your opener
3. Never stop building probes and units
4. Dont get supply blocked
5. Watch the mini map

Skip to about 5 minutes in of this fist one if you want to skip his non starcraft related stuff:

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“Strong people are harder to kill than weak people, and more useful in general”. - Mark Rippetoe

I got to the last mission in the campaign.

This **** is insane.

I did the mission last night, and I've got science vessels plus that regenerative steel upgrade. Holy ****. If you do M&M plus Goliaths, Banshees, and Science vessels.. you can basically stomp all over the map with your units constantly healing themselves.

As long as you maintain at least 2 healer units of each type so they can heal each other, you're golden. I barely lost a unit once I got to the point where I had about 4 or 5 goliaths, 6+ banshees, and 10+ Marines and a marauder or two that you start with.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."