StarCraft II LP: So, this newb walks into a ladder...

[Duneyrr]

Okay, here's the deal:

I have played a grand total of 2 games of StarCraft in my life. I am currently downloading StarCraft 2 and will soon be recording myself playing the game.
I'll probably switch between playing the single player campaign and league games in an attempt to learn how to play and try to move up the ladder from practice to... well, however far I can get.

Probably... Copper? I've watched some YouTube videos of people playing StarCraft II and it looks pretty intense. I will also be posting links to all of the resources I'll be viewing/reading to help me learn how to play.

Anyway, I don't really have a good venue for it, so I'll be posting everything here. It will be my first ever 'Let's Play' style anything so any and all feedback would be appreciated. Hope you guys enjoy it!

Expect my first failure to be later this evening.

[Grif]

Good luck mate.

You will find that the single-player experience does not prepare you in any way for the multiplayer side of the game though. (Maybe except to play Terrans, but even then, you get pampered with the additional units in the campaign.)

[Duneyrr]

Did I say this evening? Haha, silly me... apparently the Blizzard Downloader and I do not see eye to eye on these matters.

I guess I'll be recording sometime in the next 3 years or so.

No, seriously, tomorrow things will happen.

[Spartacus]

The Blizzard downloader is, in my personal experience, a piece of utter trash that never works properly. Patch day means me spending all day trying different firewall setting, opening it in different ways, and just trying over and over to get it to download the last 14%...

[Grif]

The Blizzard downloader is, in my personal experience, a piece of utter trash that never works properly. Patch day means me spending all day trying different firewall setting, opening it in different ways, and just trying over and over to get it to download the last 14%...

You mean how I can never get it past 48% despite me restarting it countless times. Pretty much.

Also, the SEA server sucks. You can never get it to finish downloading a map.

[iyaerP]

If you actually want to learn how to play, I suggest watching the Day9 Daily at day9tv.blip.tv and going to teamliquid.net

Those two sites will better prepare you than anything else short of actually playing and practicing the game will for how to play well.

However, if you are a masochistyou want to be amusing, don't go to those sites, and don't look up anything.

[Winterwind]

How blind and unprepared do you want to go into this? Because we have a fair bunch of people quite knowledgeable about this game, who could provide you with anything ranging from very basic, general advice, all the way up to highly specific and in-depth advice. Unless you wish to go in utterly unprepared, the results of which might be anything from hilarious to very, very painful... :smallwink:

[The Glyphstone]

Alternatively, we can give you bad advice, making the end results both hilarious (for us) and painful (for you).:smallbiggrin:

[Spartacus]

When you're Terran, I recommend making only Marines against Protoss and Terran. It doesn't matter what they do, if you make enough Marines, you'll win.

It doesn't work as well against Zerg, though.

[Duneyrr]

I'll be doing the first video as blind as I can. Like I've said, I have seen some people play the game, but I don't know any tech trees, build orders, or cheese tactics so my first few multiplayer games should be very painful. I don't know how many jerks there are in the practice league, but as this is the internet, I'm sure I will be crushed in a few games.

I will be trying to learn from outside resources later on. I'm actually aiming to get into the bronze league, but I still have no idea what that actually entails.

The videos will come out in pairs. First I will play 10-15 minutes of multiplayer, then a single player mission for 10-15 minutes. I'm aiming for 8-10 videos a week.

[Domochevsky]

Mhm, if you play multiplayer with Zerg i demand that you do like roaches and make a ton of units and bases everwhere on the map and then swarm the other guy. :smallbiggrin:

(I'm in favor of keeping this fairly blind, just for kicks.)

[Grif]

When you're Terran, I recommend making only Marines against Protoss and Terran. It doesn't matter what they do, if you make enough Marines, you'll win.

It doesn't work as well against Zerg, though.

Marine rush is now the name of the game? Whatever happened to the good ole' Tank/Viking combo?

[Spartacus]

Tank/Viking still works. I just don't ladder at all, so my Macro is a fair degree above my placement level. It turns out 13rax is a viable strategy if you are doing it while keeping the enemy on one base. Protoss is the most annoying though, I needed to get a Thor one time to break the Force Fields.

[Duneyrr]

My mic is quiet, the voice over gets de-synched about half way through and it's way too long and pretty boring, but heck. Here it is!

GAME 1:

Multi-Player:
http://youtu.be/1TLs3aDWs1w
http://youtu.be/4LIqKy1sykE
http://youtu.be/E1SBZf3M9nc
http://youtu.be/s_IL1p9k2Go

Single Player:
http://youtu.be/gf35dy8r5iY

I've already recorded the next two pairs (they are much shorter!)
Please leave comments here or on the video!

EDIT: And another one!

GAME 2:

Multi-Player:
http://youtu.be/0vh_SuUTyDM
http://youtu.be/_Vqa8TsnjE4

Single-Player:
http://youtu.be/XYfqMPxYlrc

[Newhill]

This made me miss bronze :smallbiggrin:. Awesome

[Recaiden]

Ordos? How could you?


Other than that, I completely approve.

[Duneyrr]

Hey, Ordos rocked. I still have that game sitting in it's big bulky box next to my desk. The one with the creepy Harkonnen adviser on the cover? Yeah. Nostalgia.

GAME 3:

Multi-Player:
http://youtu.be/qFV437moeWk
http://youtu.be/w_e2zmxMOI4

Single Player:
http://youtu.be/q0hcLePBVrw
http://youtu.be/2vesJ8CIw60

In the Mission 3 video, I mention my dislike for defense missions... Now, I'm a big tower defense player and I really enjoy defense games, but not in this context. It's a neat kind of idea, and I think I would like playing a mode that is devoted to holding out against stronger and stronger enemies, but when I'm playing an RTS like this I want to beat the other guys... or at least have the option to!

[Domochevsky]

So many unnecessary deaths... @_@

(Things we learned: A spinecrawler destroys marines.)

Also: that End of Mission cutscene was bogus. They didn't even get past your initial bunker setup, let alone got ground to build things.

[Artanis]

In the Mission 3 video, I mention my dislike for defense missions... Now, I'm a big tower defense player and I really enjoy defense games, but not in this context. It's a neat kind of idea, and I think I would like playing a mode that is devoted to holding out against stronger and stronger enemies, but when I'm playing an RTS like this I want to beat the other guys... or at least have the option to!

Try the Left 2 Die custom map sometime :smallwink:

[Duneyrr]

I feel like I'm getting better at this. There's still a lot to learn!

GAME 4:

Multi-Player:
http://youtu.be/jnDTfB6TjqA
http://youtu.be/f71m2peg19c

Single Player:
http://youtu.be/9jMES0mthh4
http://youtu.be/laeLMI9w0VA
http://youtu.be/QuQzBaRXOGI

The only thing worse than defense missions are escort missions. We had a flying unit at the very beginning; couldn't we have just used that? Also: I suck at micro-managing my guys. Is there a way to move and attack?

[Artanis]

Is there a way to move and attack?

Just give your guys an order to attack a location instead of a unit and they'll fight their way there.

[Spartacus]

This is done, by the way, by either clicking the attack button followed by the area, or by hitting the 'a' key and left-clicking the area to move to. This is commonly known as a-move.

[Duneyrr]

Sorry about the long delay.

GAME 5:

Multi-Player:
http://youtu.be/nycQaAumV5M
http://youtu.be/ORCCM9VjGeE

Single Player:
http://youtu.be/B5_uOcARonA
http://youtu.be/bQ0a2__6KSE
http://youtu.be/vApDPaNFtaM
http://youtu.be/AMETcWp8Zrk
http://youtu.be/EC_hFTeHEdQ

Now this is more like it! A defense mission with a clear offensive objective. Sorry I took a bit longer than needed on this one!

[Bucky]

Sorry about the long delay.

GAME 5:

Multi-Player:
http://youtu.be/nycQaAumV5M
http://youtu.be/ORCCM9VjGeE



You know why you lost this one, right?

You kept getting distracted and stopped making probes and attacking units.

[Duneyrr]

I'm starting to think I'm really not cut out for this.

GAME 6:

Multi-Player:
http://youtu.be/J7pwdPyqDSA
http://youtu.be/cPLHQzPGE84

Single Player:
http://youtu.be/F8gSxl6bKbY
http://youtu.be/yfBS9sOw-vo
http://youtu.be/cEzwRr5xr_I

Fun mission, though!

So I guess there are placement matches? I'll study some resources before I play them and I'll post them here.

[Newhill]

Hilarious as always. :smallbiggrin:

It is really interesting to see how you gradually figure out things when everything is new.

You have gotten a lot better since the first game, despite losing every match. notice how your army gets bigger for every game. That's because you get better at spending your money.

[Artanis]

So I guess there are placement matches? I'll study some resources before I play them and I'll post them here.

There are indeed placement matches. Five, to be precise. They're generally pretty good at putting you fairly close to where you belong skill-wise.

[Miklus]

This make me want to play SC2 again! Gonna take a game now.

[Miklus]

Did I kill this thread? :smallconfused:

I just played three practice league matches and won all three!

I played as protoss all three times. I think they are just easier to manage. You just order the building and let it finish, you don't have to be there when it does like with the terran.

My first opponent was terran and he turtle'd up in his main base and went for battlecruisers, I think. He had the expansion, but he did not break down those rocks that kept him in. So I had my way with all the other resourses. Then I had to beat my way in to his base through rocks, a tight row of bunkers and siege tanks. Plus three battecruiser that he had managed to build. But really, turtleling up and letting the other guy have 75% of the resourses is a loser strategy.

The next guy was protoss like me. He attacked me fairly early on with stalkers, but very few zealots. My zealots ate them up. Then I planted the rest of my army on his expansion and denied him that. I had my expansion up, so I basically steamrolled him.

Third guy was terran again, He harrased me a bit with some aircraft, so I had to put up photon cannons. I think I just out expanded him. But I did make a mistake. I assumed he was diagonally across from he, so I ran my entire army up there before realising my mistake. Good thing he did not attack me then. Once I found him, I just flattened him. He got out a Thor, but it was too little too late.

My strategy is like this: Build 16 probes to mine the minerals. Probe nr 9 needs to make a pylon for support. Then I build two warp gates and that forge thing. I start building Zealots and once the gas is up, Stalkers. In the last game I threw in some Sentries (? those shield things). Once I get 12 units, I go out of the base. I don't attack his base yet, but I try to keep him from expanding. I realise that I have next to no defense myself, but that has not been a problem so far. I am basically very agressive and if the enemy wants out of his base, he will have to fight me for it.

Am I right in thinking that those photon cannons are a waste of money? You might as well spend you money on units. Do you really need anything other than zealots and stalkers with maybe a few void rays thrown in?

[Jair Barik]

Photon cannons have a number of uses. In general they are a bit more durable than a unit of equivalent cost. They can be used to build a wall making the enemies progress harder. They don't take up supply. They are a detector (can see invisible units) so are a useful defence against enemy scouts (Obersvers) and enemy harrasment (burrowed zerg units, dark templars and banshees).

Finally if you don't mind everyone hating you then you can use them to attack the enemy base.

[Miklus]

Well, feelin' all high and mighty from those three wins, I proceeded to the placement matches.

The first one was fine. A Terran guy that made the same mistake that terrans seem to do. Spend all his money walling himself in. I did terrible, nay criminal micro-management, running into range of his seige tanks and so on. But I won on the macro. I had three bases while he had one.

But the second match...O boy, did I get my comeuppins! I had to see the replay just to figure out what happend. He did a stalker rush on me. But he did not walk them across the map, oh no. That would take too long. He warped them in. He had a probe down to scout where my base was. Then he build a pylon just out of sight. He used chrono boost to speed up the warp gate research and then warped in. I only had four zealots at the time. Shortest match yet. That guy was no noob.

...gotta copy that trick...

[Artanis]

But the second match...O boy, did I get my comeuppins! I had to see the replay just to figure out what happend. He did a stalker rush on me. But he did not walk them across the map, oh no. That would take too long. He warped them in. He had a probe down to scout where my base was. Then he build a pylon just out of sight. He used chrono boost to speed up the warp gate research and then warped in. I only had four zealots at the time. Shortest match yet. That guy was no noob.

...gotta copy that trick...
Warpgate is arguably the single most important research the Protoss have, period. Chrono-boosting it to at least some extent is the basis of almost every Protoss opening I've ever seen :smallwink:

[Miklus]

Third match was the first match against zerg. I did my usual thing and when I got 12 zealots and a few stalkers, I got out and looked for trouble. But where was he? I sent a zealot to each of the three possible places. The one that found him got cheased off by a huge ball of zerglings. But I did not order the zealot home, instead it ran to an empty location. All the zergling followed him there and killed him, but there was no base. When the zerglings ran back out, I was waiting for them with the rest of my army and massacred them. They where all strung out and he was not paying attention. The game was won at that point.

Forth match saw a defeat for me. :smallfrown: Against zerg again, but this guy was better. There was a wall of rocks between us. I attacked it with my zealots, but he had an overlord watching. When the zealots broke through, he was waiting for me with roaches. Ouch. I never really recovered from that. He counter attacked immideately and I had too few troops left.

Fifth match was against terran and one of the better matches. He attacked with marines VERY early. It was a bit desparate, but I managed to fend him off with zealots. I had to chrono boost the gateways constantly just to keep up. This guy was even more agressive than me. Good thing I had upgraded the zealots attack early on. He also attacked my expansion a few times, but once I got void rays, I rolled him back.

So I got placed in GOLD league! Division Zerus Xi, rank 33.

[Duneyrr]

So I watched a few of the Day[9] Daily Newbie Tuesday videos and they really have been great!

http://youtu.be/epMo2fLDU1Q
http://youtu.be/Hz_B9H8taG0

Anyway, I feel like it's possible for me to get better. Would anyone want to join me in a video? I would like the opponent to be on Skype/Ventrillo/Mumble/etc. when it's recorded so it would be a group thing. Anyway, let's get on with it.

GAME 7

Multi-Player:
http://youtu.be/Z_AJh2zYHLk
http://youtu.be/IksB1naZsAc

Single Player: Sorry guys, this one is really boring.
http://youtu.be/6Lu73-HzpEg
http://youtu.be/Stc8A8qVopI
http://youtu.be/dCowFHOEKUE
http://youtu.be/Du9MAqjUMSM

UGH. I really enjoyed this mission, but for entertainment value it seemed way to quiet and way too slow.

I'm really frustrated with my mic setup. I've got everything boosted (which causes the annoying fuzzy background noise), yet it's way too quiet! Does anyone know a way I can get clear and loud output? Do I just need to get a new mic?

[Bucky]

You've gotten massively better over the course of the series. You've progressed from the 'what does this button do' phase to the 'try not to die' phase.

Now, for the first time, you attempted to win the game. Congratulations on the level-up.

[Spartacus]

Anyway, I feel like it's possible for me to get better. Would anyone want to join me in a video? I would like the opponent to be on Skype/Ventrillo/Mumble/etc. when it's recorded so it would be a group thing. Anyway, let's get on with it.

I'd be willing to be a practice partner, but I don't know how well I'd do at actually being helpful. I'm decent at macro, but weak at build orders, and I don't often know why I am doing what I am doing. I just sorta do them.

[Dragon Elite]

Just popping by to say, great job for your early games, especially if you haven't watch commentators before. If you ever want a practice partner/coach, hit me up. I'm Dragonic code is 358.