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The decision to drone or produce units is a difficult one for each Zerg player. I was thinking to myself - how many drones do I need to produce to match the Terran/Protoss Worker Production?
I take worker production as a proxy to a player's economy: constant worker production is the bedrock to a player's early-game economy. Although the worker mechanics of each race differ (SCVs are idle while building, drones are sacrificed for building structures, probes are just AWESOME), I believe these differences balance out when we take a high-level view of the world.
Now, larvae are produced at every 15 seconds, and workers take 17 seconds to be produced. Hence, you will always have larvae to create a worker to match worker production by Terran/Protoss.
As a general rule, this means that the additional larvae from Queens can be utilized solely for unit production and you will not fall behind in economy.
However, whatever drone production you sacrificed before your Queen, you will need to make up through utilizing the additional larvae from your Queen.
 
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The strength of zerg is that they don't need to constantly produce workers.
if they have a timing where they are safe then they can power drones, if they need units they can power units.
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Build drones/expand whenever you think you will not die to the next attack. If you scout well this will not be a difficult decision.
Basic SC1 knowledge.
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On September 26 2010 15:36 Chef wrote:
Build drones/expand whenever you think you will not die to the next attack. If you scout well this will not be a difficult decision.
Basic SC1 knowledge.
well basic sc1 knowledge has become high level diamond strategy -_-
if you use this "rule of thumb" you've abandoned one of zerg's greatest strengths...
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Another thing - Z has the incredible ability of being able to drone hard to a certain point, and then switch completely over to army production, without missing a beat. The other races have to build up to a certain production level.....
For instance (I played Z in BW, so I'll use BW as an example), to go for a 2 hatch muta build, you only needed ~20 drones (6 on gas, 14 on minerals, to support 2 hatches worth of mutas as well as some overlords). Being a little on the safe side, you needed 22. Depending on what opening you have done, you now know EXACTLY the amount of drones you need to produce to enable your midgame strategy. This will let you know EXACTLY how many zerglings you can make, and EXACTLY how much defenses you can make before you screw up your planned production level. More drones is always better, but if you really want to end the game with that one specific attack, then knowing exactly how many drones you need to make is crucial. It is the basis behind any build order, even though most people don't understand why drones/units are being made at those times.....
If you've ever played against someone who's bunker rushed you, or tried to cannon rush you, and you lost a few workers, but still you were in a position to make it to the midgame, do you know how to respond properly? The proper response is to put yourself back on track. The only way to do that is to know how many drones you need and make adjustments based on what you have..... That might mean delaying your attack by 1 round of production to squeeze those extra 2 drones in, because you wouldn't be able to keep up production in the long run.
You can see some high level Z players check their drone counts, and will sneak drones or another hatchery at the most odd times, simply because they are planning an all-in of some kind (Calm and Kwanro are 2 examples where this ends up being pretty obvious). I wouldn't be surprised if every pro Z player in BW does this.
I've yet to try figuring out this type of thing for Z in SC2, but I play as T, so I don't really need to..... I have a feeling that the better Z players like IdrA do this already though, so they can optimize their timings, and their army count.
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On September 26 2010 16:47 seRapH wrote:Show nested quote +On September 26 2010 15:36 Chef wrote:
Build drones/expand whenever you think you will not die to the next attack. If you scout well this will not be a difficult decision.
Basic SC1 knowledge. well basic sc1 knowledge has become high level diamond strategy -_- if you use this "rule of thumb" you've abandoned one of zerg's greatest strengths...
Well...in BW, you really didn't have to think about when to power drones and when to produce units...all the main build orders covered larva usage well into the midgame.
This is still very reactive and very "feely" in sc2.
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On September 26 2010 16:47 seRapH wrote:Show nested quote +On September 26 2010 15:36 Chef wrote:
Build drones/expand whenever you think you will not die to the next attack. If you scout well this will not be a difficult decision.
Basic SC1 knowledge. well basic sc1 knowledge has become high level diamond strategy -_- if you use this "rule of thumb" you've abandoned one of zerg's greatest strengths...
4pooling? I guess you're right.
I was just describing how you macro. It isn't a rule.
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EPT
