StarCraft 2, Thread 2: Hell, it's about time

[742]

Spoiler

Show

wait, my colors were messed up but wasnt duran a black guy, and, you know, not old? are infested terrans shapeshifters now? *bigger spoiler incoming*also, magical alien destroying radiation apparently does not effect hair, you just cant tell because none of the non-infested-terran zerg have hair. why? because baldness looks neither pretty nor (in this instance) cool. i predict that it will be plot magic, or infestation changed all sorts of stuff around and magic. i know; i dont generally have a lot of faith in well paid writers.

also i FINALLY finished the single player on mixed hard/brutal (i did get the final mission done on brutal at least) there are a lot fewer warnings/timers on brutal, you need to keep track of more stuff while the more vicious AI kills you with your smaller starting resources (i think) and its slightly bigger army/more frequent(and quicker starting) nastiness events.

also, i wish i had ordered collectors edition; i didnt know tauren marine and NE banshee would be included in the bonus portraits!

[Cynan Machae]

Spoiler

Show

About the hair part, considering that the visible part of the hair is considered dead, the hair not reverting back does make sense. Wait for it to grow back a bit more and then normal hair will be back.

[Caewil]

Spoiler

Show

You have Tanks; siege 'em up with some goli or M+M&M support and Laser to take out otherwise problematic units and use floating buildings to gain vision to the high ground.

Templar are frankly the biggest bother in my experience but if you just spread out the support force a bit and use standard Tank Push pattern, it shouldn't cause too much havoc, though of course it makes Immortals and colossi all the more problematic.

But again, I play on Brutal so it may differ a bit from the experience; I'm not clear on the differences between the difficulties other than AI has somewhat better micro (though still only the level of battle.net-level human), starts with higher upgrades and builds higher tech units.

I, for one, love the Goliath upgrades. Especially the range. I use Goli a lot and the range basically means you need no other AA as long as you have scan or floats to gain vision.

Damn it! I completely forgot that I could just float buildings to gain vision. I sacked about 50+ units just busting ramps for vision since I had no air units or scans.

Anyway, once I get my achievements (and research upgrades) I'm going to replay the missions on Brutal before heading to Char. I'm starting to find the missions on hard a little easy, actually. Three days ago I could barely defend on Zero Hour. Yesterday I got all the achievements in one go.

Maybe I'll actually put up a decent fight against some of you guys? I still have a bit of one-control-group syndrome, but my micro/macro have improved tremendously. I hotkey my production structures and command centres and make sure I'm building stuff all the time. Micro feels a lot better as well.

[Name_Here]

Anybody else think that the storyline needed some major tightening? I mean the game just kind of wanders around. Save a colony here, harvest resources for an unknown reason there and steal a little Dominion tech here. I mean you just kind of molder around until you finally beat the storyline missions which are extremely obvious.

I don't know I just thought maybe the campaign should have been bigger or something. Maybe add in some goal that we can care about.

[shadow_archmagi]

Anybody else think that the storyline needed some major tightening? I mean the game just kind of wanders around. Save a colony here, harvest resources for an unknown reason there and steal a little Dominion tech here. I mean you just kind of molder around until you finally beat the storyline missions which are extremely obvious.

I don't know I just thought maybe the campaign should have been bigger or something. Maybe add in some goal that we can care about.

Basically, there were a handful of separate plot lines.

The science chick wanted you to help save her refugee friends (WHO HAVE THE WORST LUCK IN THE WORLD)
Tosh wanted you to help him bring back his buddies
Tychus wanted you to assemble the artifact
Battleship Guy wanted you to overthrow the Empire
Zeratul wanted you to watch his vacation movies

Each one is a strict linear progression, but you can access basically all of them at the same time, so it looks like you have a choice.


EDIT: What counters massed marines with siege tank backup?

[Pie Guy]

EDIT: What counters massed marines with siege tank backup?

As terran, a nuke would be nice.
As protoss, 2-3 immortals and a collosus.
As zerg, I have no idea because I am terrible at zerg. Roaches?

[shadow_archmagi]

As terran, a nuke would be nice.
As protoss, 2-3 immortals and a collosus.
As zerg, I have no idea because I am terrible at zerg. Roaches?

I was under the impression that immortals fared poorly against marines, because their special ability is deflecting LARGE attacks.

Collosi are good, but they just don't seem cost effective. 20 marines can drop one before it can kill more than 3 marines.

[Forbiddenwar]

Damn it! I completely forgot that I could just float buildings to gain vision.

*forehead slap* oh, that's how you up the ramps in zero hour. now i feel like a moron

Maybe I'll actually put up a decent fight against some of you guys?

post your id code in this thread and we can get a game together

EDIT: What counters massed marines with siege tank backup?

I think chargelots and HTs do well, or if the terran has no starport, DT might do very well. the splash damage from the tanks after scanning will help take out the marines.

[Moklok]

I was under the impression that immortals fared poorly against marines, because their special ability is deflecting LARGE attacks.

Collosi are good, but they just don't seem cost effective. 20 marines can drop one before it can kill more than 3 marines.

With range upgrade and good use of terrain, a few Collosus can destroy any marine army. Immortals can also eat tanks very fast.

[Bouregard]

As terran, a nuke would be nice.
As protoss, 2-3 immortals and a collosus.
As zerg, I have no idea because I am terrible at zerg. Roaches?

Infestors would do quite some damage to them. Especially if you manage to cut down their Medevacs...Roaches are also quite usefull.... as the only thing that counters them from terranground are Marauders and possible Thors.... However Infestors should do the trick, marines just have to few HP.

Harrassing Hellions & Thor backup could work.

Protoss: Dunno, don't like them... but Psistorms and a metric butload of zealots maybe.

[shadow_archmagi]

the only thing that counters them from terranground

Siege Tanks. They insta-gib about seven marines at a time. Hard to get more bang for your buck than that.

[fknm]

I was under the impression that immortals fared poorly against marines, because their special ability is deflecting LARGE attacks.

Collosi are good, but they just don't seem cost effective. 20 marines can drop one before it can kill more than 3 marines.

Focus the Immortals on the siege tank, since Immortals do 50 damage on armored units. Colossi should easily be able to take marines.

You may want to bring some Stalker or Zealot backup into the fight, though. You've got those warp-gates for a reason!

Also, it seems that the online competition has gotten much tougher in the past few days. I used to be able to smash silver league players with no difficulty; right now, I don't think it'll be long before I drop two leagues to bronze.

[Jane_Smith]

just a question about the editor - does anyone know how to change the -size- of units? Been trying to figure it out, i cant find anything other then a listing for "Mass", but that doesnt do it.

[Douglas]

By the way, anyone figured out the max score you need for the highest achievement on the Lost Viking?

There are achievements for 125000, 250000, and 500000 points. I tried for 1,000,000 points just in case, but died somewhere in the 900,000 range. Judging by comments I've seen on the Internet and the naming of those three achievements (bronze/silver/gold), I'm pretty confident 500000 is the last one.

Oh, and I was rather disappointed to discover that Lost Viking suffers from the design flaw of not giving you maximum rate of fire for holding down the space bar - you can shoot quite a bit faster by tapping it repeatedly instead. Given the length of the game, this leaves you with the unpalatable choice of either being stuck with significantly inferior firepower or continuously hitting the spacebar at high speed for half an hour to an hour or more to get the top achievement. I decided this was idiotic and came up with a third option.

Create a new text file and copy this code block into it:

var WshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell");
WScript.Sleep(5000);
while (true)
{
WScript.Sleep(50);
WshShell.SendKeys(" ");
}

Save the text file somewhere with a .js extension. Start Starcraft 2, get to the arcade machine, minimize SC2, double-click on your .js file, go back to the game, and start playing. From the moment you double-click on the file, it will wait 5 seconds and then simulate pressing the spacebar repeatedly at very high speed indefinitely. There is, in fact, a maximum rate of fire in Lost Viking, and this script will hit it with a hefty margin.

When you're done, press ctrl+alt+del to open Task Manager, switch to the Processes tab, find wscript.exe in the list, and end it.

[Caewil]

The solution to siege tanks is drops/mobility. Ignore tanks, go somewhere unexpected and kill whatever you can. Marines might get there in time but they're easy to kill.

Edit: Zealots with charge can work as well. Get up to the marines and those tanks will kill their own troops.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

I am now officially Shneekey.210 and I mostly play Terran.

5PM EST is not a good time for me on Saturdays, as I generally don't get off work until then. 6PM EST would work much better, or even later once the holiday season kicks in. But for now, I'm gonna go play with the campaign.

[DranWork]

Marine Siege balls fall to DT's only need a few to wipe the floor with them. Mix a few dt's into a Zealot rush and laugh quietly as they do all the killing and fast.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Cute little easter egg I found in the Cantina...

Spoiler

Show

The red holographic chick dancing up on the top... that's the Female Night Elf dance...

The more things change, the more they stay the same, eh?

[Inhuman Bot]

Cute little easter egg I found in the Cantina...

Spoiler

Show

The red holographic chick dancing up on the top... that's the Female Night Elf dance...

The more things change, the more they stay the same, eh?

Not much of a discovery there; It's been pointed a number of times.

[Rigel Cyrosea]

I am now officially Shneekey.210 and I mostly play Terran.

5PM EST is not a good time for me on Saturdays, as I generally don't get off work until then. 6PM EST would work much better, or even later once the holiday season kicks in. But for now, I'm gonna go play with the campaign.

The session usually last quite a long time, so even if you show up a few hours late, most times there will still be people playing.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

So, I decided to go with the Shrike Turret over the Fortified Bunker, on the theory that the quicker they die, the less damage they can deal. Plus, I can always detail an SCV to repair if necessary.

However, the next Zerg tech upgrade, I'm really split on.

On the one hand, the Perdition Turrets seem to be just the thing to seed between my bunkers at choke points to create wall-off that fires back, aggressively. Combined with the Shrike Turrets, it makes for some interestingly sturdy base defenses with no need for units in the bunkers. And I generally go for 4x Marines and 1x Firebat per bunker (yea, I upgraded for bigger bunker space, saved my bacon on the Day/Night mission)

On the other hand... everyone knows how much fun the Planetary Fortress can be, if they do punch through my base defenses, or if I have to put a lot of outpost command centers out nearly mother-naked to secure points or resources. Granted, they wouldn't have been much fun with the lava world, since they cannot lift off, but maybe there will be other opportunities where a command center out by himself can do quite a bit of good...

[DranWork]

I went with the flamer turrets and their great. No need to get a firebat anymore for base defense. Plant Fort is better in multi-player as a computer opponent shouldn't be able to break into your base anyway

[arguskos]

Perdition Turrets for life!

Course, ya still should be getting the Firebat upgrades (esp. Juggernaut Plating) and using them, cause they're DELICIOUS.

[Khosan]

The real issue with the Planetary Fortress is the inability to lift off, which is a huge issue in some missions.

Orbital Command on the Protoss side is the friendlier option. You can still lift off, plus all the fun of MULEs and scans.

[ImperiousLeader]

While I'm enjoying the game, I'm having 2 issues.

1. Battlenet connection keeps dropping, meaning achievements are not being accounted and I have to redo missions.

2. Need a faster computer. Minimal settings are all well and good, but I love the animated portraits.

[arguskos]

2. Need a faster computer. Minimal settings are all well and good, but I love the animated portraits.

Heh. I can do minimal settings, plus animated portraits. I'm right there with ya dude. Wish I had a better laptop and could see everything better, but I'm outta luck for now.

Still, at least I can play, mirite?

[Gralamin]

Just won. Great ending!

Last mission spoiler:

Spoiler

Show

From what I understand, killing off air makes it easier then killing off ground. Air leaves you with Nydus worms popping up that banshees can make short work of. Ground apparently leaves you with Brood lords, mutas, and sometimes Leviathans.

[Dienekes]

While I'm enjoying the game, I'm having 2 issues.

1. Battlenet connection keeps dropping, meaning achievements are not being accounted and I have to redo missions.

2. Need a faster computer. Minimal settings are all well and good, but I love the animated portraits.

Same for both counts, though I'm not really bothering with achievements. I plan to redo the missions anyway though, since I'm only running through on normal-hard.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Just won. Great ending!

Last mission spoiler:

Spoiler

Show

From what I understand, killing off air makes it easier then killing off ground. Air leaves you with Nydus worms popping up that banshees can make short work of. Ground apparently leaves you with Brood lords, mutas, and sometimes Leviathans.

Spoiler

Show

Yea, but with the Missile Turret macross-missile upgrade, plus the turretted-bunker upgrade full of marines, with the extra range upgrade for bunkers, and Vikings, you should be able to deal with air pretty easily

[Gralamin]

Spoiler

Show

Yea, but with the Missile Turret macross-missile upgrade, plus the turretted-bunker upgrade full of marines, with the extra range upgrade for bunkers, and Vikings, you should be able to deal with air pretty easily

Spoiler

Show

My brother has all of the base upgrades, and vikings, and he was having a lot of trouble. He was playing on hard though, and isn't a very natural turtle.