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Active: 3600 users

why supply cap?

Blogs > jimbob615
Post a Reply
1 2 Next All
jimbob615
Profile Blog Joined September 2006
Uruguay455 Posts
October 27 2011 07:42 GMT
#1
hi i was just wondering, why is there an arbitrary 200/200 supply cap in starcraft? does anyone know why it was put in? i'd like to know as if it was for performance reasons on old computers, maybe that's not so relevant now. so blizzard could possibly remove it in HOTS?

What do you think?


Poll: Your thoughts on the 200 supply cap?

Keep it. (74)
 
88%

Remove it. (10)
 
12%

84 total votes

Your vote: Your thoughts on the 200 supply cap?

(Vote): Remove it.
(Vote): Keep it.



*
rANDY
Profile Blog Joined November 2005
United Kingdom748 Posts
October 27 2011 07:45 GMT
#2
It is there to give terrans a reason to attack.
jimbob615
Profile Blog Joined September 2006
Uruguay455 Posts
October 27 2011 07:47 GMT
#3
On October 27 2011 16:45 rANDY wrote:
It is there to give terrans a reason to attack.

i see what you mean, but if a terran is turtling, a zerg could build 500/500 brood lord infestor corruptor for example. so i don't think it would nescessarily change anything except make more epic battles. what do you think?
Josh-FiveO
Profile Blog Joined September 2011
Denmark174 Posts
October 27 2011 07:47 GMT
#4
Unlimited size of Deathballs......
A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others.
Josh-FiveO
Profile Blog Joined September 2011
Denmark174 Posts
October 27 2011 07:48 GMT
#5
Tbh m8 this idea blows. The game would suck if there was noi supply cap. Then Terran and Toss would just wait till all minerals on the map is mined, and then attacked.
A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others.
mizU
Profile Blog Joined April 2010
United States12125 Posts
October 27 2011 07:48 GMT
#6
200/200 isn't just arbitrary. Imagine a 300/300 deathball of protoss or terran. Efficiency becomes exponential with certain groups or ranged units.
if happy ever afters did exist <3 @watamizu_
Josh-FiveO
Profile Blog Joined September 2011
Denmark174 Posts
October 27 2011 07:49 GMT
#7
And Zerg might also be to overpowered because they can max very fast. Now consider them getting maxed 20 times.
A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others.
Itsmedudeman
Profile Blog Joined March 2011
United States19229 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-10-27 07:51:44
October 27 2011 07:50 GMT
#8
On October 27 2011 16:48 Josh-FiveO wrote:
Tbh m8 this idea blows. The game would suck if there was noi supply cap. Then Terran and Toss would just wait till all minerals on the map is mined, and then attacked.

Are you kidding? Zerg would by far be the race that benefits the most as they typically have the highest drone count, and with the cost inefficiency of roaches right now, having a larger supply cap would help a ton in the late game.

Anyways, dumb idea and you should promote engagements and action during the late game.
blade55555
Profile Blog Joined March 2009
United States17423 Posts
October 27 2011 07:56 GMT
#9
It would make zergs mid game way way to strong and if toss/terran survived it the toss deathball would be rediculous. The 200/200 food cap is good for multiple reasons as otherwise toss would probably die to a zerg 300/400 food army when their at 150 or something and if they did survive then late game protoss army would never die (and its already hard to kill a late game protoss deathball >>)
When I think of something else, something will go here
Deleted User 101379
Profile Blog Joined August 2010
4849 Posts
October 27 2011 08:03 GMT
#10
It is there to force players to make a decision between workers and units as well as low-tech cost-efficiency vs high-tech supply-efficiency. It's a good limitation.

After all, SC2 is not C&C.
elmizzt
Profile Joined February 2010
United States3309 Posts
October 27 2011 08:06 GMT
#11
I accidentally clicked 'remove it'.
d=(^_^)z
Heyoka
Profile Blog Joined March 2008
Katowice25012 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-10-27 08:16:51
October 27 2011 08:16 GMT
#12
I think its highly unlikely to be removed, the cap has always been a part of SC games and it leads to necessary mid/endgame scenarios where its no longer possible to add to your army.

I do think changing it to something like 300 would be interesting to explore in a custom for a few games though
@RealHeyoka | ESL / DreamHack StarCraft Lead
Azerbaijan
Profile Blog Joined January 2010
United States660 Posts
October 27 2011 08:18 GMT
#13
The cap is there so my computer wont melt
eviltomahawk
Profile Blog Joined August 2010
United States11135 Posts
October 27 2011 08:25 GMT
#14
Actually, I kinda dislike how mineral collection works in SC2. In BW, a player spreading their workers out over several bases could get a higher income than a player who spreads the same number of workers over fewer bases. This kinda doesn't occur in SC2, where extra expansions don't really offer much economic gain until the previous expansions are full saturated. As a result, there is a limit to how many expansions are possible to take before the worker supply count gets too high.

Tying this in with the supply cap, I think it would be interesting to experiment with increasing supply caps as a way of encouraging greedier late-game play by allowing for more worker supply to be spread out over more bases.
ㅇㅅㅌㅅ
Rkie
Profile Blog Joined October 2009
United States1278 Posts
October 27 2011 08:35 GMT
#15
http://starcraft.wikia.com/wiki/Map_max

This is what they implemented in Brood War. My guess is that it is just because at the time the game was made, they could only support so many things to display at once.
For all of the why SC2 shouldn't be like BW debates, this is just another concept that was carried over to the second game.


Also, interesting to note, since the Valkyrie has that crazy attack animation with so many rockets, there is this

"A bug prevents the Valkyrie from attacking if there are too many units on the screen."


Kid-Fox
Profile Blog Joined July 2010
Canada400 Posts
October 27 2011 08:53 GMT
#16
On October 27 2011 17:03 Morfildur wrote:
It is there to force players to make a decision between workers and units as well as low-tech cost-efficiency vs high-tech supply-efficiency. It's a good limitation.

After all, SC2 is not C&C.


Uh oh, incoming supply cap removal (Browder worked on CnC RA2)
For me it's still a performance issue. My comp can't handle monobattles at times and I always have to play on lowest settings.
Newbistic
Profile Blog Joined August 2006
China2912 Posts
October 27 2011 08:57 GMT
#17
Supply caps are still needed in SC2 so players don't lag out. Also probably easier to balance than unlimited supply.

As for the RA2 comparison, I don't think that's too much of an issue. Sure you had unlimited supply but in reality very few games went past the C&C equivalent of a 200/200 supply mark in ladder.
Logic is Overrated
Sqalevon
Profile Joined August 2010
Netherlands523 Posts
October 27 2011 12:38 GMT
#18
If the supply cap would be raised, I would love to see more open maps with ways to flank your opponent. Battles would be more about positioning and flanking too, and deathballs would be easily broken when attacked from all sides.

But I think more open maps would upset the early game too much and tailor too much to the Zergs strengths. (ground mobility)

Could be interesting to play around with though.
OpticalShot
Profile Blog Joined October 2009
Canada6330 Posts
October 27 2011 16:42 GMT
#19
I wouldn't remove it completely, but I'm not against the idea of exploring different caps (between 150 to 250, let's say) to find out how it affects gameplay and racial balances.
[TLMS] REBOOT
Eppa!
Profile Joined November 2010
Sweden4641 Posts
October 27 2011 17:26 GMT
#20
300+ lings still lag most comps.
"Can't wait till Monday" Cixah+Waveofshadow. "Needs to be monday. Weekend please go by quickly." Gahlo
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