Nidus network or nest? I went Nidus myself and that mission was a blast. Also not having nidus network around (which apparently on the final battle gets progressively harder) really helped out. But I won the final battle by the skin of my teeth. It was pretty sloppy though.
Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
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quote:So far there was only one decision I had to make, ethically speaking: which faction to side with in a given mission. The only immediate results I could see were different research bonus points and a different cutscene. The faction I fought against seemed pretty amiable about the whole thing, so *shrug*
Just got to this mission. I was amazed how easy they made the "moral choice." The protoss aren't like "Raynor you jerk why are you attacking us" they're just "yeah.... let's fight WOOHOOOOO!!!!!"
Posts: 4136 | Registered: Aug 2008
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posted
So, I bought this game the day it came out.
However, then I was out of town two days, had to work the next day, then was out of town for the last THREE days...
so I've only done two missions and about a half dozen online skirmishes in the practice league, plus about a half dozen AI skirmishes, and only have, like, 150 or so points total for achievements. Sigh. I'm so far behind...
Posts: 1577 | Registered: Sep 2005
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Nidus network or nest? I went Nidus myself and that mission was a blast. Also not having nidus network around (which apparently on the final battle gets progressively harder) really helped out. But I won the final battle by the skin of my teeth. It was pretty sloppy though.
I took out the nest. I probably could have defended against those units easier, especially when 5 Nydus worms would pop up out of the ground and start spitting out zerg. Luckily I had banshees over my base spread out to take out the worms as soon as they spawned, and about 5 battlecruisers that did nothing but shoot their Yamato cannon at the "special" unit that attacks your base.
What really helped out on this mission was my hive emulators that I had researched. Seeing a group of zerg come towards you is less threatening when you mind control their ultralisk and let him do the dirty work. By the end of the mission I think I had 4 or 5 of them, with a team of medics to heal them up.
GREAT ending to the campaign, and I can't wait for part 2!
Posts: 1937 | Registered: Nov 2006
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posted
Rakeesh and I are undefeated! Here's a writeup,
The first game we were all ready for a rush but nothing showed up so Rakeesh made with the backdoor drop off while I attacked with Thors from the front. We managed to kill a secondary nexus and Rakeesh got a primary nexus before being wiped out. They attacked with those protoss walkers at the same time and walked right into my base, wiping out the turrets I'd built for their carriers. Fortunately Rakeesh and I (mostly Rakeesh) were able to rebuild forces enough to chase them away. We then rebuilt and with a lucky comm station sweep I found an exp base right next to my Thors that was just constructed so I killed it. Rakeesh then took the brunt of their second wave and I came in from behind and cleaned up. We then pushed to their bases and killed everything.
The second game we decided to rush for it. I went reapers and Rakeesh went marines/mauraders. My reapers managed to take out the nexus and main pylons as well as all his zealots who can't keep up with rocket pack upgraded reapers. In all the excitement I had failed to notice one of them had built reapers too, and they had killed all my scvs. They got greedy and went for Rakeesh' instead of killing my buildings, whereupon Rakeesh's marines tore them a new one. I was really messed up. As I rebuilt, he hit me again with reapers, and rakeesh saved my bacon again. By the time I manage to rebuild, get an exp base out, and finally churn out a Thor Rakeesh dropped in from behind and leveled the Terran player's comm center and defensive force. I managed to catch his reapers from above one by one. The guy brought in his attack force and Rakeesh killed them too, whereupon the guy quit and we emerged victorious! ----
Yeah to deal with fliers all I needed were turrets by the artifact, and problem neutralized.
Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
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(btw, Duane is not my real name. I got the account a day after WoW was released from a work friend that tried it and hated it, so its been mine ever since..My real name is Bryce)
Posts: 1937 | Registered: Nov 2006
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posted
I might give pvp a try, but my system will probably slow everyone else down too much.
I use the mouse to control everyone, and a number of my friends are amazed I play so well that way. Apparently they all use a bunch of macro's....legal ones, assigning buttons and what not. Anyone here use those? If so, what for?
Posts: 15082 | Registered: Jul 2001
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posted
I thought I would be able to run the game at full settings with my 8800GT's....I couldn't
So when I get home there should be a box with two GTX 460's waiting for me!
I've been due an upgrade for a while, and this seemed like the best time. The wife signed off on it since we just dropped a ton of money so she can go visit her family in Albania. She leaves tonight and I took tomorrow off, which means a Starcraft 2 marathon!
Posts: 1937 | Registered: Nov 2006
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posted
I chose the nest, because I hate Broodlords with a passion. Mutas are nothing more than gnats. Poison glaive spitting gnats. And every Char mission was so gloriously messy. I loved it.
Also, similar love for the 'End of Days Battle' (trying to avoid spoilers, sort of). I treated it like the Alamo... giving up ramps and areas as I had to, and giving up ground as I had to as the fight wore on.
Posts: 1368 | Registered: Sep 2002
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posted
Wowzers, I just finished my placement matches for 1v1 and got the very bottom of Bronze League. This makes me particularly sad because I was in the middle of Gold during the beta.
Posts: 4136 | Registered: Aug 2008
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quote:Originally posted by Raymond Arnold: Wowzers, I just finished my placement matches for 1v1 and got the very bottom of Bronze League. This makes me particularly sad because I was in the middle of Gold during the beta.
I'm not ready to take the leap away from practice, my 1v1 is horrendous.
Anyway my friend stuff is, Xan 673 mrxwyatt@gmail.com
Posts: 549 | Registered: Feb 2008
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posted
So I bought it monday, and left it in the suburbs with my little brother who is in love with it. I played the first couple missions before I left, and I just love the campaign menu thingie: at the bar on Mar Sara. Didn't get far enough to get onto the Hyperion.
Posts: 1574 | Registered: May 2008
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posted
well, sad day: placed at the very bottom of bronze
glad day: got to win like 10 games in a row
Rakeesh and I played a few games last night, and we seem to have generally comparable skill so that was pretty cool... or would have been, if my computer didn't crash like every single time.
I've found that on the Mac side of my laptop, the game doesn't crash, but it often runs slow. On the windows side it runs beautifully, but crashes all the time. Lol.
Posts: 4136 | Registered: Aug 2008
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posted
I use the mouse exclusively, and some of my friends in SC seem amazed that I can do that and still play well. I guess they assign buttons and macros, but I can't seem to get the hang of it, or even figure out why that would be so much better.
Does anyone here set up button assignments and macros? If so, for what type of things, and how effective are they?
Posts: 15082 | Registered: Jul 2001
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posted
You don't need to assign buttons, just use the already existing hotkeys. (Whenever you mouse over a button there should be a highlighted letter that tells you what hotkey it is).
Also, are you using control groups? That's another thing that saves HUGE amounts of time, since you can assign each group of buildings a control group and keep your entire base churning out units without ever leaving the battle area.
You move around with the mouse to click on buildings, and then you keep your left hand (maybe right if you're left handed) on the keyboard so that as soon as you click on barracks, you immediately start training dudes instead of waiting a second for your mouse to get back to the button area.
What's you online ranking? My guess is you can progress towards the top of Gold with the mouse, after that you're dealing with people who are good enough that it's not really possible to be better than them if you're constantly losing time moving between the battlefield and the button GUI.
Posts: 4136 | Registered: Aug 2008
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posted
I don't know about comparable levels of skill, but I am getting better. Placed 100 in Silver league after placement, but now am 32, I believe, steadily increasing. How does one go about moving up leagues? Does it just happen when you do well enough?
Posts: 17164 | Registered: Jun 2001
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posted
I've played a lot of 2v2, although never with a random partner. I've only played one 1v1 game -- my first placement match. I won as zerg against a terran player.
I kind of want to never play a 1v1 again in order to leave my perfect win record unsullied. Posts: 10886 | Registered: Feb 2000
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posted
Going up in Leagues happens automatically, but I think it takes longer than progressing up through a league does.
I generally sort StarCraft players into three tiers, which are related but not entirely based on actual "good-ness." The newb tier is people who sit around teching up to battlecruisers and get mad when people rush before they had assembled their giant fleet.
The middle tier generally know how to defend against a rush (even if they don't always get the defense up perfectly), and when they lose a game they can usually understand why they lost. They might not know all the best strategies but they understand how to evaluate strategies properly. The main thing that separates a "good" middle-tier person from a "bad" one is their ability to macro out a big army, without getting complacent. Individual unit micro can come into play but ultimately won't matter until you've mastered the macro. I don't know what either of our win-percentages would be against each other, but I think we're both in this general category and improvements we make in the near future will be incremental mastery of macro.
I don't know if there's a specific binary difference between middle and "Pro" players, but the best players basically spend every single second of the game executing multiple orders so that they never stop building new units, never have buildings that sit not doing anything, never stop expanding, all while having time to continuously attack with micromanaged strategy. I understand what goes into this, but my brain just doesn't work on a level where I can keep track of that much stuff and I'm not sure if it ever will.
Posts: 4136 | Registered: Aug 2008
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quote:Does anyone here set up button assignments and macros? If so, for what type of things, and how effective are they?
If a game goes to my getting starports, I'm using at least...six CTRL+# groups. One is for my army, usually massed mixed infantry 40+ and a half-dozen or more medivacs. Two is for the medivacs themselves*. If it goes to the point where I build a second army, three and four go to similar builds. Six is an air force of vikings. Seven and eight are barracks and starports, and 0 are my various orbital commands and command centers.
It makes a big difference once it starts being done even somewhat well. Not only is it faster, but it lets you actually pay more attention to the map which can be vital for noticing things like bad guys flitting through the edge of your sensor tower radius, or seeing them come at your base and massing troops effectively. The difference of a second you were spending at your barracks clicking the 'Marauder' button and a wiped-out expansion or gatherer army is can be just a moment or two.
*With bio-armies for Terrans, hotkeys are vital also. One for the whole group including medivacs gets them going where I need to. One hotkey, though, is for just the medivacs, crucial for when they a) venture too far ahead, or b) start getting targeted specifically by your enemies. Keep your medivacs at the back of a 50+ army of constantly-stimmed infantry, and, well, the losses will be minimal and the payoff will be huge. Anyway, those are just a couple of examples, and really they're not very difficult to learn. I need to work on a) responding appropriately and b) keeping my base going while attacking.
ETA:
quote:but the best players basically spend every single second of the game executing multiple orders so that they never stop building new units, never have buildings that sit not doing anything, never stop expanding, all while having time to continuously attack with micromanaged strategy. I understand what goes into this, but my brain just doesn't work on a level where I can keep track of that much stuff and I'm not sure if it ever will.
One example of such a strategy is that smart players - I don't know how accurate this is - will never even have a building sitting and doing nothing, they will farm out expansions until they have all they could possibly need, in case they need another barrack, factory, or starport.
Posts: 17164 | Registered: Jun 2001
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Currently ranked 30-40ish in my diamond division for solo, but to be honest I am not that great at this game.
By the way here is a great video for Protoss players who are looking for strategies to use in online play. This strategy got me all the way into the diamond division with about a 2:1 win/loss ratio. It's a very viable opening in all 3 match ups in my opinion.
posted
So, Spectres vs. Ghosts, aside from the units offered in the rest of the game, is there any story impact, or is this like the other choice with no impact? I'll be siding with Nova, since Tosh didn't even trouble to deny her accusations, but I am curious.
Posts: 17164 | Registered: Jun 2001
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posted
Stil haven't gotten to specters vs ghosts. Curious as to whether Nova will be adding ANOTHER love interest to the mix. (I liked Ariel at first, but her lines quickly got really lame and her departure at Haven was nauseating).
I'm wondering if the overheating thing resulted in my "periodic shut downs" on the windows side. Mac side seems overall safer, so I think I'm gonna have to stay there even if it runs a little slower.
Posts: 4136 | Registered: Aug 2008
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posted
So, this game is a blast. I've done ten missions so far, all on hard mode. I think it's improved my multiplayer, as before I couldn't win, but since I played 8-9 one player missions I won three, disconnected once (counts as a loss) and was creamed once. Fun!
Posts: 1577 | Registered: Sep 2005
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posted
Also, my character name is Durandel. (Yes. I misspelled Durendal, Roland's sword from The Song of Roland. Sigh. Maybe I should have gone with Joyeuse instead, Charlemagne's sword... I wouldn't have misspelled it.)
Posts: 1577 | Registered: Sep 2005
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posted
The only hotkeys I use are for the gateway's teleporty thing, having 6-10 instant units is great.
Posts: 1574 | Registered: May 2008
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posted
I still don't even know how the warp gate thing works.
On the plus side, I think I found out why my laptop kept seizing, and I may have a way to stop it from happening again. On the down side....it's because my laptop fan doesn't work. I even downloaded Speedfan, and it says my rpm's are at 0.
I bought a laptop cooling pad, and even playing this game I never went about 86 C, MUCH cooler than it was, by at least 10 degrees.
Posts: 15082 | Registered: Jul 2001
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posted
You research warp gates, you click the "convert to warp gate" button, then you click on the unit buttons on any given warp gate and then click anywhere in your power grid.
Posts: 4136 | Registered: Aug 2008
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quote:So far there was only one decision I had to make, ethically speaking: which faction to side with in a given mission. The only immediate results I could see were different research bonus points and a different cutscene. The faction I fought against seemed pretty amiable about the whole thing, so *shrug*
Just got to this mission. I was amazed how easy they made the "moral choice." The protoss aren't like "Raynor you jerk why are you attacking us" they're just "yeah.... let's fight WOOHOOOOO!!!!!"
I just now got to this mission as well (only get to play an hour or two a day at most), and I actually played both "choices" : I saved, picked one, played through it, loaded, picked the other one, and played through it. I have to say the choice you both clearly made above is definitely the harder of the two mission-wise, and also felt the least rewarding story-wise. So I'm going to keep playing with the opposite choice.
(It's annoying not having a spoiler tag on these forums.)
Posts: 142 | Registered: Apr 2005
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posted
I don't mind harder missions, but I actually did think the story was pretty lame-ending. I don't know if either of the endings end up having ramifications later on. (Well, I know that one of them does because I accidently looked at the map editor, but I don't know if that's an actual major repercussion or just a few extra minutes of cut-scene).
Posts: 4136 | Registered: Aug 2008
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quote:Originally posted by Raymond Arnold: I don't mind harder missions, but I actually did think the story was pretty lame-ending. I don't know if either of the endings end up having ramifications later on. (Well, I know that one of them does because I accidently looked at the map editor, but I don't know if that's an actual major repercussion or just a few extra minutes of cut-scene).
Wait, what do you mean? Is there another cut-scene I don't know about?
I did the secret mission last night...Awesome mission. The second half of it really gave me a sense of urgency. It kind of pushes you into timing certain abilities right in order to survive.
Posts: 1937 | Registered: Nov 2006
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posted
Is there any way to get the secret mission if you already beat the "Media Blitz" mission? Or do I have to start alllll over? Posts: 1321 | Registered: Sep 1999
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quote:Originally posted by Tarrsk: Is there any way to get the secret mission if you already beat the "Media Blitz" mission? Or do I have to start alllll over?
Nope, you have to do the campaign over, or load up a game in which you haven't completed it yet.
IF you don't have a manually saved game, just play through the required missions again on casual difficulty. If you don't care about achievements you can use the cheats to finish the quickly:
terribleterribledamage : Makes all your units invincible and lets them kill most stuff in one hit
sosayweall: Tech requirements disabled, you can build any unit without an addon.
moredotsmoredots: Units and buildings are free to build.
That should let you get back to the Media Blitz mission pretty quickly.
Posts: 1937 | Registered: Nov 2006
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posted
Well...since I bought a laptop cooling pad, my laptop has not frozen once. Hell, it is barely even WARM now.
Guess that means my fan burned out a while ago, and I never noticed because I don't use it for graphic intense things much. Posts: 15082 | Registered: Jul 2001
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posted
I just got into the editor. I'm simultaneously really excited and disappointed. There was a particular story/game/map I wanted to make involving two psychic characters who had no particular weapons/armor (it was gonna be vaguely portal like, in that they're two civilians trapped in a testing facility and have to use their powers to get out).
The editor does come with plenty of models, and I'm glad that I can finally focus on game design for once as oppose to having to needing to do the graphics in tandem. But the few models that could potential work (the civilians, scientists and prisoners) have really terrible animation and don't work very well as main characters.
I have plenty of other ideas (the editor community is not exactly lacking people making maps about ghost powers, but I think my take on it would have been fairly original). I'm also pretty sure the editor supports importing new models and animations, so I can do that too. But I had particularly hoped I'd be able to get rolling on this right away.
Posts: 4136 | Registered: Aug 2008
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posted
As was explained to me, and has borne out now that I've played, your record is supposed to be pretty close to 1:1 win:loss. Even at the top of my platinum league, the ratio is only about 1.5:1 win-loss. You're getting matched up on the basis of points, and since you gain or lose points based on wins and losses in matches that are ranked, well, it handles itself quite nicely. But you can go to Match History after a game and check your opponent, to have some idea how well you ought to have done. The real indicators are how well you do when the system shuffles in a higher- or lower-ranked opponent, to test your skill or theirs.
Posts: 17164 | Registered: Jun 2001
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posted
After playing, like, 38 matches in the practice leagues, I finally went and got myself placed.
And I placed Silver League! Grizzly Beta division. Whatever that means.
Anyway, it's better than bronze, but I'm not as good as many players. I'll improve, and I have been. Durandel is the handle.
Posts: 1577 | Registered: Sep 2005
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posted
I am up to the top 30 in my bronze league, all from wins in the past 2 days.
However, even though I can connect to the internet (obviously), and I played yesterday on this same wireless network, I can't connect to battlenet.com right now.
Hmmm....looks like they began maintenance on the servers, so it might be a while before the .net is back up. Posts: 15082 | Registered: Jul 2001
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