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I am an SC2 player that recently have been trying my hand at BW, both as a way to improve my gameplay as well as to widen my understanding and appreciation of both games. I will be posting updates periodically, mostly about my gameplay and practice and things I note about the transition of playing SC2 and learning BW. I am currently a Platinum Zerg in SC2 and still play there, and from what I've seen of the ICCup to SC2 ladder exchange rate, that places me at approxmately F--. Thanks for reading and please feel free to give me any advice or tips that you might have; I definitely need them.
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8/6/11
http://repdepot.net/replay.php?id=43155
I've only played a few games against computer in order to work on my mechanics and familiarity with BW. Above is the first game I actually won against the Computer, I don't recommend you watch unless you are prepared to see the game you love trashed so much and done so badly by the inexperienced hands of mine.
I've been working on ZvT elusively, using the 3 Hatch muta suggested and transitioning into hydra/lurker, and I suppose I'm supposed to eventually transition into Ultra/lang/hyrda?
Just some notes from me, that I've learned and observed about my play and learning process:
1. Hotkeying is soooo important in this game. I've even started using camera hotkeys because I would waste so many hotkey spots trying to get all my hatcheries on a hotkey each. Having to consider running out of hotkeys is not something I would have ever expected to have to deal with.
2. Droning is much harder for a lot of very subtle reasons.
-A: It's harder to check drone saturation since you can only select 12 at a time, so I can't just box my mineral line and count. I've had to just rely on sight and see if my drones look like they are too crowded and have bad pathing.
-B: Rallying to new bases is cumbersome and a little difficult. I have to spend maybe 10 seconds re-rallying all my hatcheries to a new base for drones, but that also causes my units to all go there as well, so I'm not entirely sure how to put my drones on minerals when I'm being offensive and rally all my hatches towards the middle of the map.
-C: Since drones and units share the same rally, my overlords block the view of the drones so if I let them sitting and come back later, I can't see them and have to wait to move the overlords then have vision of the drones to actually select them.
-D: When I make drones, they go in front of my hatch, but in the same place that my mining drones are moving, so it's hard to select only the stopped drones and not the mining drones. I guess the solution to this is to just set the rally somewhere that won't intersect with my mining drones.
3. WHY IS THE HOTKEY FOR SELECT LARVAE THE SAME AS MAKE SCOURGE???
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/6l0pV.jpg)
4. Late game hatch hotkey
I think I don't know how to manage 4+ bases once I get there. Is it better to make drones only at those hatches and make all my army at the saturated/mined out bases? Maybe this is also the solution to the rally issue I was having with drones. I do run out of hotkeys though, since I decided to use 5-0 for hatches. That is enough for my main, nat, macro, third, 2nd macro and a last additional hatch. I don't know how it is possible to manage the hatches when you get 4+ mining locations. I used the location hotkeys F2 for the main, F3 for the natural and F4 for the third.
Maybe it would be better if I eventually removed the hatchery hotkeys for those first three base locations and reassign them to my later mining hatcheries, while keeping all my macro hatcheries at those hotkeyed locations. That way its easy to jump to hotkeyed locations, select all larvae, and then use the number hotkeys for far away hatches.
5. Army control
Although I am (supposedly) using 4 hotkeys for army, it really doesn't seem like it's enough. Zerglings alone can take up all the hotkeys if I let them. But I want to keep hydras on a separate hotkey, and defilers (if I ever get that far) on a separate one I think. Lurkers seem like they don't need to be on a hotkey since they just stay put and would otherwise mess up your control of the other army units.
I've basically felt like I need to get a big army together, then box up 12, then a-move into the opponent, then box up another 12, a-move, and repeat. How I can micro AND macro during this seems very tough.
6. Mutalisks definitely are much more powerful in this game, especially because you don't get the bunching up of marines that occurs in SC2. However, I still don't quite get muta micro, and I definitely cannot macro at the same time. I also give up on mutas in the late game because they require too much attention from me and I feel like the resources seem better spent in hydras and ultras.
7. I now understand why everyone was crying about losing lurkers and BW ultras. I sent two ultras to a base, not realizing there was a small army there for defense. I figured those ultras were an unfortunate lost cause to my lack of multitasking and deal with my other units. I later come back and see one ultra at half cost, and only a burning CC left. Sunken are really strong too. Hydras and early game zerglings were another happy discovery of how good they are in this game.
8. My macro was so bad in every game. The thought of actually spending everything and keeping up with my income seems crazy. I might not have been making enough macro hatches, which I will work on in the future. It was also kinda funny that every time I looked at my base, I felt the need to inject larvae since they were missing the eggs on them. I can tell how much apm this game really requires and how much focus and multitasking you need to actually be good at this. Between all the drones and worker production, small control groups and individual unit micro, I really see how much energy and effort this game takes and how much hand speed you need. Definitely can feel the "dumbing down" that happened in the transition to SC2.
8/3/11
+ Show Spoiler +Small update: I downloaded from iccup, with plans to buy the real game later when I can research to find the cheapest possible copy.
I've just been playing computer and wtf, it is hard to just make drones in this game. Feels like I need 80 apm just to send workers to the mineral line as soon as they pop, unless there is some way to figure out how long until they hatch without clicking on them. Once I get two bases up, ridiculously hard. Haven't played too much though, so those are my initial thoughts so far.
8/1/11
+ Show Spoiler +I'm an SC2 player that technically I played Brood War but that was back in 2003 as a naive 12 year old, when I asked my friend to burn me a copy and get a CD key for me since it was so popular back then. I had no idea how to play, didn't know what was going on and barely even knew what the different units were.
I played through the campaign, but I used all the cheat codes to make it through (power overwhelming, black sheep wall, show me the money), lol those were good times. But anyways the point is I tried playing a game I had no idea what it was about and got raped and stopped playing immediately. I remember choosing zerg to play against a protoss on an island map because I thought mutas were good and protoss had crappy air units. I set the AI on easy and proceeded to try to tech to mutas. By the time my spire was about finished, I think I got dropped by three zealots. It was a very demoralizing loss as you might imagine.
But now that I'm older, have an appreciation for gaming and more importantly have the resources to improve, I was looking to start playing bw again. What pushes me the most is that my current laptop is not good enough to play SC2, but I have to imagine that it's fine to run BW, which I want to play, both to understand what that game is about and to help me keep in shape and improve my SC2 playing abilities.
Some questions I would appreciate if you could answer for me.
1. What is the cheapest way for me to get BW? I'd imagine buying online can only cost like $10 at most nowadays. But do I need to buy vanilla SC as well?
2. I vaguely know about iccup and fish and brain but I don't actually know what they specifically are. And I guess that there's a blizzard ladder as well, but no one uses it? As a complete newbie, where's the best place for me to start playing to practice? I guess I would suck so much mechanically I would have to play AI just to get used to the various controls and hotkeys and conveniences that were added into sc2, but once I do that, where do I go from there?
3. SC2 has GSL every night, what are the big tournaments for BW to watch and see the pros in all their glory?
4. I play zerg in sc2, so I'll probably play zerg in BW as well. What are good builds for the matchups for me to start with?
5. Anything else I'm forgetting or don't realize is important about going from SC2 to BW?
 
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1. Iccup is free, but you should just buy it online.
2. For a COMPLETE newbie idk (I have seen people suggest garena before?), but I doubt that you are actually a complete newbie because you are posting here so I would suggest Iccup. Warning: you are going to get absolutely stomped for a while.
3. OSL, MSL, Proleague.
edit: relevant links -
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=50875
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=52045
http://www.youtube.com/user/nevake
4.
ZvP - 3 Base Spire into 5 Hatch Hydra
ZvT - 3 Hatch Muta
ZvZ - whichever of 9 pool, 12 pool, or 12 hatch you like the most
Liquipedia is your friend.
5.
Since I didn't put this anywhere else, here is how to get Iccup. You really should just buy the game though (I think you can do it through Blizzard's online store?) This thread is your friend as well.
hope this helps and good luck on your BW journey 
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For 3/, there is nearly everyday at about the same time as GSL either the proleague (GSTL in sc2) or OSL/MSL (GSL). Always restreamed by awesome TLers, just open the bw tourney section and the top threads will be the one to read.
Or you can look for OSL / SPL / STX in the calendar for current events.
edit : nearly forgot the small vod thread, which alone justify to be a TL member :
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=50875
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For the tournaments question I invite you to the News and BW tourneys forums.
Buy SC:BW through amazon. Blizzard's store sells if for almost twice as much!!!
Play at iccup for pros. No Blizzard Ladder. There used to be but then there were a TON of boosters/hackers and Blizzard got too lazy to deal with them and just said "**** it" to the ladder.
For builds, I invite you into the world of Liquipedia-BroodWarVersion
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Small update: I downloaded from iccup, with plans to buy the real game later when I can research to find the cheapest possible copy.
I've just been playing computer and wtf, it is hard to just make drones in this game. Feels like I need 80 apm just to send workers to the mineral line as soon as they pop, unless there is some way to figure out how long until they hatch without clicking on them. Once I get two bases up, ridiculously hard. Haven't played too much though, so those are my initial thoughts so far.
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On August 04 2011 17:38 Emporio wrote:
..it is hard to just make drones in this game. Feels like I need 80 apm just to send workers to the mineral line as soon as they pop...
You think this is hard ? Wait till you play on ICCUP. Sending drones to mine would be the least of your worries.
Play for a few months, and doing mundane stuff like that would become automatic. No seasoned (D/D+ to A-)BW player actually "thinks" about sending workers to mine, its just reflex. You'd get it.
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http://repdepot.net/replay.php?id=43155
I've only played a few games against computer in order to work on my mechanics and familiarity with BW. Above is the first game I actually won against the Computer, I don't recommend you watch unless you are prepared to see the game you love trashed so much and done so badly by the inexperienced hands of mine.
I've been working on ZvT elusively, using the 3 Hatch muta suggested and transitioning into hydra/lurker, and I suppose I'm supposed to eventually transition into Ultra/ling/hyrda?
Just some notes from me, that I've learned and observed about my play and learning process:
1. Hotkeying is soooo important in this game. I've even started using camera hotkeys because I would waste so many hotkey spots trying to get all my hatcheries on a hotkey each. Having to consider running out of hotkeys is not something I would have ever expected to have to deal with.
2. Droning is much harder for a lot of very subtle reasons.
-A: It's harder to check drone saturation since you can only select 12 at a time, so I can't just box my mineral line and count. I've had to just rely on sight and see if my drones look like they are too crowded and have bad pathing.
-B: Rallying to new bases is cumbersome and a little difficult. I have to spend maybe 10 seconds re-rallying all my hatcheries to a new base for drones, but that also causes my units to all go there as well, so I'm not entirely sure how to put my drones on minerals when I'm being offensive and rally all my hatches towards the middle of the map.
-C: Since drones and units share the same rally, my overlords block the view of the drones so if I let them sitting and come back later, I can't see them and have to wait to move the overlords then have vision of the drones to actually select them.
-D: When I make drones, they go in front of my hatch, but in the same place that my mining drones are moving, so it's hard to select only the stopped drones and not the mining drones. I guess the solution to this is to just set the rally somewhere that won't intersect with my mining drones.
3. WHY IS THE HOTKEY FOR SELECT LARVAE THE SAME AS MAKE SCOURGE???
4. Late game hatch hotkey
I think I don't know how to manage 4+ bases once I get there. Is it better to make drones only at those hatches and make all my army at the saturated/mined out bases? Maybe this is also the solution to the rally issue I was having with drones. I do run out of hotkeys though, since I decided to use 5-0 for hatches. That is enough for my main, nat, macro, third, 2nd macro and a last additional hatch. I don't know how it is possible to manage the hatches when you get 4+ mining locations. I used the location hotkeys F2 for the main, F3 for the natural and F4 for the third.
Maybe it would be better if I eventually removed the hatchery hotkeys for those first three base locations and reassign them to my later mining hatcheries, while keeping all my macro hatcheries at those hotkeyed locations. That way its easy to jump to hotkeyed locations, select all larvae, and then use the number hotkeys for far away hatches.
5. Army control
Although I am (supposedly) using 4 hotkeys for army, it really doesn't seem like it's enough. Zerglings alone can take up all the hotkeys if I let them. But I want to keep hydras on a separate hotkey, and defilers (if I ever get that far) on a separate one I think. Lurkers seem like they don't need to be on a hotkey since they just stay put and would otherwise mess up your control of the other army units.
I've basically felt like I need to get a big army together, then box up 12, then a-move into the opponent, then box up another 12, a-move, and repeat. How I can micro AND macro during this seems very tough.
6. Mutalisks definitely are much more powerful in this game, especially because you don't get the bunching up of marines that occurs in SC2. However, I still don't quite get muta micro, and I definitely cannot macro at the same time. I also give up on mutas in the late game because they require too much attention from me and I feel like the resources seem better spent in hydras and ultras.
7. I now understand why everyone was crying about losing lurkers and BW ultras. I sent two ultras to a base, not realizing there was a small army there for defense. I figured those ultras were an unfortunate lost cause to my lack of multitasking and deal with my other units. I later come back and see one ultra at half cost, and only a burning CC left. Sunken are really strong too. Hydras and early game zerglings were another happy discovery of how good they are in this game.
8. My macro was so bad in every game. The thought of actually spending everything and keeping up with my income seems crazy. I might not have been making enough macro hatches, which I will work on in the future. It was also kinda funny that every time I looked at my base, I felt the need to inject larvae since they were missing the eggs on them. I can tell how much apm this game really requires and how much focus and multitasking you need to actually be good at this. Between all the drones and worker production, small control groups and individual unit micro, I really see how much energy and effort this game takes and how much hand speed you need. Definitely can feel the "dumbing down" that happened in the transition to SC2.
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The scourge picture made me lol pretty hard. Zerg is actually difficult to play, especially if you are used to SC2 mechanics.
Do you know about ctrl+click to select up to a control (12) of the same units? This will help you select units around your rally point.
I don't play Zerg often, but when I do, I group my hatcheries from 0 backwards (0, 9, 8, ...), you should have about 5-6 hatches at midgame, which leaves you 5 hotkeys for units.
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I play zerg and my hatches for ZvT are this:
Main = 5
Nat = 6
Macro = 7
Third = 8
Fourth = 9
Fifth (if that late) = 0
Additional macro hatcheries are placed by 7 so I can just drag select the larvae.
Additional bases are just macroed from the mini-map. Like, click, click, d/z/s/u/f/whatever.
Army is 1-4. I use hotkeys for zerglings early in the game, but eventually it's like, ugh, too many. Then I just hotkey ultras, defilers, muta+overlord, and lurkers.
Keep at it. :D BW is a very rewarding game. ^_^
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Ah yes the good old scourge hotkey. Go 3hatch mutas -> hit ss -> f10 esq
Zerg hotkeys I used
1-3 units 4-7 hatches (I took this from jaedong). Other hatches are managed via his link to the overmind. Seriously though his mouse is insane
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zvt your early hive tech composition should be defiler lurker ling until you get 4 gas to go to defiler ultra ling. hydra lurker is a pretty outdated build; you only really build hydras vs mech. you also generally don't build mutas in the late game unless you've plagued a cloud of vessels, but then you really only need 1 to kill them all. if you're pumping a lot more than 12 mutas you're probably allin, because they're pretty terrible at fighting marines without good micro.
also most people don't actually hotkey lings in the late game, they drag a click on the minimap.
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Screen hotkeys are good, definitely. You at least should have one on your rally point and another on the base you're droning up. It is like, f2+ctrl+left click+f3+right click and that's it, all your drones are working. Also, I started building my late game macro hatches close to the base hatchery so that I don't need to hotkey it seperately. Tap tap, you're at base hatchery, then you can just click to the other hatch and make units.
And, you NEED to hotkey your lurkers. They are not just "burrow and let them do their job" units. Losing lurkers can be very costly in both non-mirrors. I remember losing games just because I lost my lurkers in the middle of the map for nothing.
And, you don't have to drone up like a mad man in sc1, 10 drones on minerals and 3 drones on gas per base can support up to 2 hatches per base.
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EPT
