EPTFlux Time
While watching some BW games it struck me at the almost complete lack of flux time in SC2.
First I'll explain what I mean by 'flux time'
In BW, there were a lot of points in the game, where one race had undisputed map control, while the other had nearly impenetrable defence. What this lead to was a period of the game where both players knew they couldn't realistically do a push. This then gave a window of time to do interesting strategies, from fast tech, to mass econ, to harass based play.
A few examples of this timing in BW:
PvT after T gets 1-2 tanks with siege mode, P has map control, and can decide to take a large number of routes from that point, as he is not scared of the T moving out for a little while
ZvP after P has their FE up and running, and P scouts Z not doing a hydra-bust, both players get a window where no push either does has a high chance of working, and thus both can branch out into a number of different strats
Now, these are just generalizations, as each game is different, but in BW you could get to a point where you were able to do what you wanted in relative safety, with your minimal defence. The game then came down to cutting it as close as possible on these defences, and capitalizing on when your opponent misjudges.
Now, to bring this to how it relates to SC2.
Currently in SC2 we hardly see this at all, people are finding themselves limited in what they can do, due to the fear of being overrun by a push. Unable to spend resources on a harass, when it means the enemy can just push and kill you due to less money spent on defence.
The race we see that can spend the most on harass is Terran, able to invest in banshees and blue-flame helions due to the defensive power of the rest of their army. They however have the same problem in the early game, where, while reapers are actually an excellent harass unit, if anyone scouts a terran with them, they realize they can just push in and likely win, as reapers are almost useless in any stand-up fight.
Where we see this most present however is in PvP, where due to warp-gates, there is very little defensive advantage for either player, forcing both players into a very narrow pigeon-hole of possible builds. If you don't match your opponent's production, you simply lose.
This is partially true for ZvZ, but the fast production rate gives enough of a defenders advantage, at least once you make it past the very volatile early game.
Again with T though, the dynamic of siege mode makes their defences very hard to break, which is why TvT has become one of the more interesting mirror matchups, despite the requirement to be entirely tank+viking focused.
In ZvP or ZvT there is a growing window of flux time in the early game, where speedlings still retain map control. As players find out more about the game, and where they are able to cut corners, I think this time period will continue to grow. A few months ago even, in these matchups, zergs were getting crushed by early timing attacks, or tricked into making too many units while the opponent econed. Now however we are seeing zergs being a lot better at reading the situation and being prepared for those early pushes if they come, which in turn is shifting the meta-game away from seeing those early pushes in every game, and instead into a more macro style. Thus that window of flux time is formed.
If we look back at BW it happened in the same way. The reason we see such econ/macro based games these days is because those aggressive plays were getting more and more figured out, leaving key timing attacks to exploit a greedy player.
From all this, I can propose the statement that more flux time makes for more interesting games over-all, as it allows both players a chance to deviate to what they want to do, instead of being forced to fight for their life the entire time.
The Defensive Advantage
I touched on this second bit in my last blog about deathballs, but I find it is even more important here.
Without any defensive advantage, players would be forced to always do the exact same build every game. Fortunately everybody has a defensive advantage, however small.
Here are a few simple defensive advantages:
Unit transit time: the time it takes for attacking units to get to the enemy base is time he can make more units in.
Reinforcement time: different then initial transit time, this is how fast new units can join the attack
Terrain advantage: high ground/chokes/etc, this includes walling and sim city
Having your workers there: pulling workers to defend
Defensive structures: by the numbers they are better then units on a cost to effectiveness ratio, this also includes zerg creep
Unit positioning: most obvious with tanks with siege mode, but is also true for any army, combines with terrain well.
Now, we can see off the bat a few of these that don't come into effect in some situations, lowering defensive advantage:
Proxy production facilities reduces transit and reinforcement time
warpgates negates reinforcement time and possibly transit time
creep spread reduces transit time and reinforcement time, Nydus worm removes both
Many units negate or lessen terrain benefit, for example air units allow you vision on cliffs, blink, wall walking or flying allows you to ignore chokes
Drops negate positioning, terrain, and most of defensive structure's advantage
The list goes on, but essentially the more of them you have, the more effective your army will be at attacking, whereas if you are not able to bypass many/any of the defensive advantages, the enemy can repel your attack with a much smaller force, being able to do what he wants with the rest of his money/time.
This brings us back to flux time. As we can see, more defensive advantage = more flux time.
This makes it simple for mirror matchups, you can spend a certain amount of resources on non-army/defence as is appropriate for your defensive advantage. Where it becomes more complicated however is in non-mirrors, or mirrors where both players go radically different builds.
Relative Strength vs Game-Time
What this means is how strong your current army makup is vs your opponent's at different points in the game.
An example:
ZvT, early game, once Z gets speedlings, T's army is extremely weak in relation to the Z's, requiring a strong defensive advantage to survive (wall-in)
Progressing on, if both players theoretically just went pure ling/marine, there's a point where critical mass for T is reached, and they have a much stronger relative army strength.
Now, this is a poor example, as it would never get to that point, as both players would begin making other units, which very much complicates things. At any point in the game however, if you were to clash your armies in the middle of an open field (no defensive or terrain advantage) you would see their relative strengths at that time.
This is where we enter abstracts, where nothing is set in stone due to how complex the game is at this point, but the principles can still apply.
The goal of the game is then to attack when your relative strength is greater then his by an amount greater then his defensive advantage (after you've done what you can to reduce that)
In ZvP it has been said there is "an hourglass that's started at the beginning of the game, and when it runs out, zerg loses" (paraphrased slightly) This is due to an extreme differential in relative army strength when P hits 200/200, this strength difference combined with the low defensive advantage for zerg at this point in the game, forces the zerg to end it before it gets to that point.
4-warpgate is entirely based off this, where you reduce his defensive advantage so low that you only need a tiny bit stronger of an army to win the game, which can be made up for with good micro.
Final Thoughts
I feel that players are moving more and more towards extending these flux times, where neither player's relative strength is greater then the other player's relative strength+defensive advantage. Which in turn is making for better games. This is helped along by the larger maps, which obviously increase the transit and reinforcement time. What I would like to see in the future however, is a bigger defensive advantage (along with interesting investments to bypass it), not because I like seeing people turtle up, but because it allows for more interesting play due to higher amounts of flux time.
