Hey guys

Today I want to ask for a little help.

I am doing something critically wrong in my games and because of it. I cant seem to take a game in the ladder even against the A.I

Below is a replay of me VS a Terran A.I on very hard mode. Please have a look and give me your opinion. This is one of those times where me watching my own replays does not help at all

http://drop.sc/125927

Please help Bob kill some people

Thanks

divito

Canada1213 Posts

March 04 2012 06:26 GMT

I feel your pain, I'm in a terrible slump right now.

MysteryMeat1

United States3292 Posts

March 04 2012 06:46 GMT

ai on very hard mode and up get extra minerals for each so while you get 5 they get 7.

if you play standard vs very hard or insane A.I. you will lose

phiinix

United States1169 Posts

March 04 2012 06:48 GMT

Mostly just macro stuff. The game ended and terran had 70 scvs, and you had 27 or something. I try not to mention macro to lower level players because it's kind of a given, but your micro for the most part was pretty good.

I would recommend getting the extra 2 gateways a little later. int his game, they started at 4:15, finished by 5:20, and you got 2 zealots out at around 6:10. If you had built those extra gateways as late as 5:10 or 5:20, you would have gotten out those 2 zealots at nearly the same time, since warp ins are instant and that's around when warp gate finishes. by delaying them, you can build more units and probes in the early game, which helps you defend.

In general, try to have at least 6-8 gateways, 3 nexi, and 60 probes by 15:00. The easiest way to check your probe count is to box all the ones at your main, then hold shift and box all the probes at your natural, and then hit ctrl+2, and it'll tell you how many units are in that control group in the tab. Forgetting the logistics and build orders and junk, if you aim for that infrastructure, you should be winning more games.

Also, don't listen to mystery meat, he's misinformed. Only insane AI gets additional minerals, very hard AI still gets 5 minerals per mineral trip

G_G

Canada178 Posts

March 04 2012 07:03 GMT

On March 04 2012 15:46 MysteryMeat1 wrote:
ai on very hard mode and up get extra minerals for each so while you get 5 they get 7.

if you play standard vs very hard or insane A.I. you will lose

Only the insane AI gets 7, not very hard. Also, that AI was a badass. I wouldn't feel too bad losing to an opponent that is consantly balancing SCVs distribution between mainland and island expansions with medivacs while attacking your natural and not really missing a beat in any other aspect either. The main way to beat the AI is basic unit counters, which you did, and out produce it on workers early on (AIs cap out at certain worker numbers per base, you don't have to).

Seriously though, you need to significantly improve your Probe production. Play a bunch of games, vs AI is fine, and focus 100% on keeping your Probe production concious. This means that even when placing a gateway you should be thinking "my probes are probably about half way done by now, I have time for one more thing" and then maybe do a round of warp-ins or something. While doing that think, "that was the one thing, now I need to queue up some more Probes. Okay, now I can do a few things before needing more Probes." So do a few more things, while thinking about how much time you have until you need to make Probes again etc, etc, etc. Don't worry about build or even winning, just always be concious of the progress of your Probes. By forcing it to be concious under all circumstances you begin to not have to think about it conciously and all of a sudden you will be doing something like pulling back a hurt immortal and you'll just get the urge to build probes just before the last ones finish.

There are always many things you can improve on, like that first attack you did at his ramp that seemed like a random decision. What were you going to gain from winning that battle? Even if you won it, you would die to the reinforcements coming straight outta his base, and you will have accomplished nothing. One of the most important decision making aspects of SC is to avoid fights you gain little or nothing from, and to force fights where you can gain something from especially in the form of your opponent losing something valueble.

Just focus on Probe production though, and then change the exercise to constant concious thought under all circumstances for army unit production, and so on and so on.

Alacast

United States205 Posts

March 04 2012 07:58 GMT

You were floating 2k minerals at some point in the game and you're probe production was really low. The bigger your economy (more probes) the more stuff you can build. As your economy increases, you need the production or tech structures to back it up so you can spend your money efficiently. Try doing something ridiculous like 8 gateways on 1 base and see how many you can constantly produce out of. I think the number is ~4 but trying for too much helps you whittle down what you can actually use. Eventually you get to the point of knowing about how much "stuff" you can afford on a set number of bases.

But really important stuff=don't stop making shit. You can literally get to platinum by making sure you keep making probes, don't get supply blocked, and keep your money low. You could a-click huge armies at your opponent's base in a lot of scenarios and still win because you, because of your better production, simply have more stuff.

Valnus

South Africa17 Posts

March 04 2012 11:30 GMT

Alacast , G_G , Phiinix

Thanks for the info, I will make sure my probe production stays on par. And my follow up question was pretty much answered by Phiinix

How do I know when I have enough probes ?

Thanks for the feedback guys. I am going to line up a few games and work strictly on my probe production and unit deployment

SockArms

United States591 Posts

March 04 2012 11:39 GMT

On March 04 2012 20:30 Valnus wrote:
Alacast , G_G , Phiinix

Thanks for the info, I will make sure my probe production stays on par. And my follow up question was pretty much answered by Phiinix

How do I know when I have enough probes ?

Thanks for the feedback guys. I am going to line up a few games and work strictly on my probe production and unit deployment

If I want to know my approx worker count i just box each mineral line and count in my head

just don't click anywhere when you have them boxed XD I've done that with every single one of my workers once

but once you get a enough experience you can get a good idea of how many you have just by looking at your mineral lines as you have 6 in gas and about 20 looks saturated