EPTThis is not so bad, except that it becomes difficult to maintain a project consistently for a little time each day; some weeks, I have hours on end to spend on it, but other weeks I have virtually no time at all. As such, many of my projects related to Starcraft might have to be put on hold for the immediate future. But I thought I'd write a few of them down for later notice, so if I ever find myself with a great deal of time I can have something to work on. Here's a few I had been considering:
1) Starcraft Math: I thought I'd try to construct a mathematical model for Starcraft economies based on some differential equations and a working knowledge of Microsoft Excel. Start with one base gasless, then look at the effects of one base gas timings, then analyze two base economies and the math of expanding. Any interesting discoveries would be posted to forums. For instance:
-What is the economic benefit of going CC first instead of 1 rax expand? At what time does the CC first pass the 1 rax expand in economy?
-What is the theoretically maximized build for a one-base all-in at 6 minutes? 7 minutes? 7 minutes 30 seconds?
-What is the exact production capacity of one base worth of income including constantly produced SCVs for Maynard transfer, supply depots, etc.?
2) Late Game Practice Custom Map: Starcraft II seems to have suffered from the fact that the early game gets practice every game, but the late game gets little to no practice. As such, I thought I'd design a custom map that had the same rules as a regular Starcraft II ladder match, but with different start conditions. In particular, I would set the start conditions based on the conditions of significant professional matches fairly far into the game, but before either player had taken a major lead. This way players could analyze the game from a consistent late game perspective, design build orders and find maximized play styles for endgame situations, and more quickly test and develop strategies for late-game play. I'd like to think most players could benefit from such a custom map, since the only other way to practice late game is to either mass game in hopes of finding that situation or to play against a practice partner and specifically attempt to arrange the late-game scenario you'd like to test. Potential discoveries:
-Are mass void rays any good as a late-game transition PvZ? When should you start getting star gates? Should you add in some carriers? How many?
-What's the best late-game TvT composition? How many BC's? Tanks? Ravens? Vikings? Thors? SCVs? Are certain compositions better against others, and if so, what weaknesses do those have? How many bases do you need to start building that ideal composition?
3)Develop an in-game system for macro, micro, map awareness, etc.: Day[9] presented a system in which you check in sequence: 1) the hotkeys for your production buildings/queens, 2) your minimap, 3) your money, and rinse and repeat. I've attempted to incorporate this system into my play, and it certainly helped to get me into platinum back when I had time to actually play, but the trouble was that many tasks in SC2 are not included in that system. Putting SCVs in gas, for instance, would not be cued by any of the parts of this cycle (at least until your gas income made you realize your gas income was lower than it should be). A cycle that included, at least, all macro and map awareness elements would make it so that any time you weren't scouting or managing your army, you could just rinse and repeat that cycle for macro purposes. APM would just be a function of learning to go through that cycle more quickly, thus repeating it more times per second and improving reaction time my a few seconds. In particular, knowing when to stop tapping hotkeys and start constructing buildings or recognizing a decision point in my build would work wonders for my gameplay.
So keep an eye out for any posts regarding one of these projects. If you have any thoughts about them, let me know. Or if someone has already done something similar, that'd be great to know, too. I'd need a working knowledge of the map editor to make that custom map, and if somebody has already made it that'd save me loads of time. And it certainly seems like anybody looking to practice Starcraft II extensively could benefit a great deal from the time saved by such a map.
