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Can you teach me to play SC:BW

Blogs > ZerphyR
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ZerphyR
Profile Blog Joined February 2012
Slovenia275 Posts
September 02 2012 09:18 GMT
#1
Dear SC community I am a ordinary SC2 player currently diamond. But ever since I watched the last BW OSL I wanted to learn how to play. I play terran in SC2 and I also want to learn terran in BW. Are there any similarities or is it completely different. What do i need to do in every match up, how should i use hotkeys. What do units even do? Who should i play?

If you have any advice please tell me. Thanks in advance.

****
Marineking, end of discussion !
Stratos
Profile Blog Joined July 2010
Czech Republic6104 Posts
September 02 2012 09:39 GMT
#2
http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft/Strategy_(Terran)
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=89581
http://blip.tv/day9tv#!page=154
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=86770
En Taro Violet
TheKefka
Profile Blog Joined March 2011
Croatia11752 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-09-02 09:43:00
September 02 2012 09:41 GMT
#3
First off you need to make a account on ICCUP here: http://www.iccup.com/starcraft/sc_start.html
If you have windows 7 additionally you need this to fix the colors: http://sixen.org/bnet/Color Fixes.reg
It's pretty easy to get a game on fish for D rank,but if you feel more adventures I guess you could try with fish.
I'm sure you can find people on ICCUP who will be willing to help you around,make friends and enjoy the game^^
There are some general terran guides on liquipedia: http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft/Strategy_(Terran)
Apart from that, http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/broodwar ,you can find anything strategy related there,old BW day9 daily vods,etc.
Cackle™
Birdie
Profile Blog Joined August 2007
New Zealand4438 Posts
September 02 2012 09:54 GMT
#4
You want to play on iCCup (http://www.iccup.com/starcraft/sc_start.html ). You should expect to lose a LOT when you start, as SCBW is a lot more difficult than SCII, and the average skill level is higher (D rank players are platinum/diamond in SCII, roughly).

Terran vs Protoss is mech, unlike SC2 (that means tanks and vultures and some goliaths). Tanks are really good in SCBW, unlike SC2. There are similiarities (marine splitting in SC2 can be similiar to splitting against, say, zerg lurkers in SCBW). I'd say Terran turtles more in SCBW than in SC2. When playing vs Zerg you can go either mech or bio; bio is more standard but both are good. TvT is all mech, almost constantly after the first few marines.

For general differences, you'll have to get used to SCVs not automatically mining (you have to manually right click mineral patches to mine), single building select instead of multiple building select, and max 12 unit selection instead of max 500. This means the game is mechanically more difficult to play than SC2.

For Terran, SCVs and marines are about the same. Marines have two upgrades at the Academy (terran tech building), the range upgrade (U238 shell) and Stim upgrade. Instead of medivacs, you have medics, which are ground units that heal ground bio units. (Requires an academy) There is a separate air unit called the dropship which is used as an air transport. There is a ground unit called the Firebat (requires academy) which has flamethrowers like a hellion, but is slow like a marine. Ghosts are sorta similiar to SC2 but not used as often; you mostly use marines and medics for your main bio army.

For mech units, you have the vulture, which is fast like a hellion, but shoots single powerful shots. It has a speed upgrade which is very useful, and a Spider Mine upgrade which gives it three Spider Mines. Spider Mines are placed on the ground and chase and explode on units that come close (very similiar to the Widow Mine in HotS). The siege tank is the same as in SCII but more powerful (it requires a machine shop on the factory). The goliath is basically a smaller Thor, which doesn't do splash damage. It is mostly effective vs air units, and has a range upgrade. Mech upgrades are at the Machine Shop, which is a Factory addon. There is also the Armory, which has the weapon and armour upgrades, and is required for goliaths.

Air units are built from the Starport. Wraiths are like ...banshees but they can attack air and ground. They can cloak. Dropships are like medivacs without heal. Science Vessels are the air spellcaster, and are very useful. They have EMP (drains shields and energy, like the SCII Ghost EMP), and a shield (targets one unit, shields something like 250 damage), and Irradiate. Irradiate targets one unit and attaches a green cloud to that unit which deals splash damage to bio units in the area as well as to the targetted unit.
Battlecruisers are similiar to SCII BCs; they have Yamato Cannon, which is a spell which does heaps of damage to a single target, after a warmup.


I can go into the other races if you need. I suggest you play some of the campaign if you have the full version of SCBW, as it'll teach you all the units of each race in an easy way. There is a skype group for beginner players, which if you need an invite I can give you one (add me, JackRCDF on skype). There are often leagues and tournaments for low level players; one is in progress now (D Ranks Team League and one just finished, the D Ranks Individual Tournament. If you need more information just let me know.

Again, expect to lose a lot of games when you first start.
Red classic | A butterfly dreamed he was Zhuangzi | 4.5k, heading to 5k as support!
Djeez
Profile Blog Joined September 2010
543 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-09-02 10:11:05
September 02 2012 10:08 GMT
#5
I don't really understand why people always tell completely new players to start on iccup right away. There's still a reasonable amount of 1:1 play/obs on US East/West every day. In fact, there's one right now and it's 6 am. And it specifies ''for noobs''. It's like you want him to go get wrecked right away just to shame him and prove BW is that much harder than SC2 >.>

Sorry about ranting but it's pretty much like that everytime and I'm convinced that it's for this reason.
''Watching steppes of war in the gsl would be like watching the dreamhack 1.6 finals start out on fy_iceworld. '' -red_b
Birdie
Profile Blog Joined August 2007
New Zealand4438 Posts
September 02 2012 10:13 GMT
#6
On September 02 2012 19:08 Djeez wrote:
I don't really understand why people always tell completely new players to start on iccup right away. There's still a reasonable amount of 1:1 play/obs on US East/West every day. In fact, there's one right now and it's 6 am. And it specifies ''for noobs''. It's like you want him to go get wrecked right away just to shame him and prove BW is that much harder than SC2 >.>

Sorry about ranting but it's pretty much like that everytime and I'm convinced that it's for this reason.

There's lots of hackers on West and East, which is why I don't normally recommend it. Plus, the skill level is higher on iCCup which is a good thing. However, it is true that there are often games hosted on East and West, so OP, if you want, you can go on USEast and USWest to play as well.
Red classic | A butterfly dreamed he was Zhuangzi | 4.5k, heading to 5k as support!
Cambium
Profile Blog Joined June 2004
United States16368 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-09-02 11:30:07
September 02 2012 11:29 GMT
#7
don't play on iccup, play against computers.

if you can beat 3 computers on python or fighting spirit, then try iccup

if you start now, you'll just get super disheartened and lose interest almost immediately


On September 02 2012 19:08 Djeez wrote:
I don't really understand why people always tell completely new players to start on iccup right away. There's still a reasonable amount of 1:1 play/obs on US East/West every day. In fact, there's one right now and it's 6 am. And it specifies ''for noobs''. It's like you want him to go get wrecked right away just to shame him and prove BW is that much harder than SC2 >.>

Sorry about ranting but it's pretty much like that everytime and I'm convinced that it's for this reason.


I agree. iccup is about the worst place to start for complete beginners
When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.
mizU
Profile Blog Joined April 2010
United States12125 Posts
September 02 2012 12:05 GMT
#8
Computers are just 6 minute all ins though, only good practice for turtling ;;
if happy ever afters did exist <3 @watamizu_
Stratos
Profile Blog Joined July 2010
Czech Republic6104 Posts
September 02 2012 12:10 GMT
#9
Indeed, don't practice vs the AI too much because you'll develop bad habits. Just learn to deflect their initial rush and maybe work on your hotkeys/bos regardless of what they're doing. You need to go online and find a practice buddy who's in the same situation as you. A lot of the D-/E players can practice their offrace with you.

If you want me to add you to the sGs skype group (http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=272674) add me on skype - sgs.stratos. There's a lot of people new to the game. Actually my zerg is E/D- and I could use a practice buddy to learn the basic openings.
En Taro Violet
SaWse
Profile Joined January 2012
Belgium102 Posts
September 02 2012 12:10 GMT
#10
The only thing you can do vs computers is train your macro because they are what you could call horrible.
jello_biafra
Profile Blog Joined September 2004
United Kingdom6642 Posts
September 02 2012 13:28 GMT
#11
On September 02 2012 21:10 SaWse wrote:
The only thing you can do vs computers is train your macro because they are what you could call horrible.

You can practice your micro as well, like trying to kill their zealot rush with 2 vultures or something.

Really though, you want to get past the stage of practicing against computers as fast as possible and get on to playing the real games.
The road to hell is paved with good intentions | aka Probert[PaiN] @ iccup / godlikeparagon @ twitch | my BW stream: http://www.teamliquid.net/video/streams/jello_biafra
Th1rdEye
Profile Blog Joined December 2006
United States1074 Posts
September 02 2012 13:46 GMT
#12
Haha good luck bro! Brood War is much more demanding and frustrating than SC2 will ever be.

Diamond in SC2 will equivocate to about D or D+ on iccup.
from the days of: TheMarine [NC]...YellOw [H.O.T.]-Forever99 OgOgO [_MuMyung_] ChRh PlayGrrrr.... SlayerS_`BoxeR` [Oops]Reach [ReD]NaDa [DF]zergboy..!! Pusan[S.G] Nal_rA GARIMTO SSamJJang ChoJJa JinSu Silent_Control iloveoov H_PauL_WII JulyZerg [DaK]JoYo
sob3k
Profile Blog Joined August 2009
United States7572 Posts
September 02 2012 14:01 GMT
#13
On September 02 2012 21:05 mizU wrote:
Computers are just 6 minute all ins though, only good practice for turtling ;;


There were some AI's you could DL from www.broodwarai.com that were actually pretty solid for working on a build order against and actually did semi reasonable builds. I know they were very nice for me when I was working on learning zerg a few years ago, don't know if they are still around.
In Hungry Hungry Hippos there are no such constraints—one can constantly attempt to collect marbles with one’s hippo, limited only by one’s hippo-levering capabilities.
iPlaY.NettleS
Profile Blog Joined June 2010
Australia4462 Posts
September 02 2012 14:49 GMT
#14
On September 02 2012 19:13 Birdie wrote:
Show nested quote +
On September 02 2012 19:08 Djeez wrote:
I don't really understand why people always tell completely new players to start on iccup right away. There's still a reasonable amount of 1:1 play/obs on US East/West every day. In fact, there's one right now and it's 6 am. And it specifies ''for noobs''. It's like you want him to go get wrecked right away just to shame him and prove BW is that much harder than SC2 >.>

Sorry about ranting but it's pretty much like that everytime and I'm convinced that it's for this reason.

There's lots of hackers on West and East, which is why I don't normally recommend it. Plus, the skill level is higher on iCCup which is a good thing. However, it is true that there are often games hosted on East and West, so OP, if you want, you can go on USEast and USWest to play as well.

Havent played BW for a couple of years but in my experience alot of the hackers doing these type of games are just map editors who have rigged the UMS map in their favour (vision , extra minerals etc)

Play TVB or MELEE and not UMS if you want a lower chance of running into these type of guys
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7PvoI6gvQs
N.geNuity
Profile Blog Joined July 2009
United States5112 Posts
September 02 2012 15:00 GMT
#15
obligatory join clan sgs (d/d+ level clan, helps new players get into the game. I am not a part of it):
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=272674

Even though their thread hasn't updated in a month, you can see from the link in that OP that their team on iccup has 50 people that all have games played this season and about 35-40 of them seem to have enough games indicating plenty of activity (like 48-38 or so).
http://www.iccup.com/teams/27072.html

They're all friendly and many are also newcomers.
iu, seungah, yura, taeyeon, hyosung, lizzy, suji, sojin, jia, ji eun, eunji, soya, younha, jiyeon, fiestar, sinb, jung myung hoon godtier. BW FOREVERR
FlaShFTW
Profile Blog Joined February 2010
United States10627 Posts
September 02 2012 15:04 GMT
#16
On September 02 2012 19:08 Djeez wrote:
I don't really understand why people always tell completely new players to start on iccup right away. There's still a reasonable amount of 1:1 play/obs on US East/West every day. In fact, there's one right now and it's 6 am. And it specifies ''for noobs''. It's like you want him to go get wrecked right away just to shame him and prove BW is that much harder than SC2 >.>

Sorry about ranting but it's pretty much like that everytime and I'm convinced that it's for this reason.

D ranked players have a low enough macro that if he at least knows the basics of SC2, then he just needs to pick up a build order and he'll do fine.

plus US E/W too many hackers. screw that.
Writer#1 KT and FlaSh Fanboy || Woo Jung Ho Never Forget || Teamliquid Political Decision Desk
TL+ Member
bITt.mAN
Profile Blog Joined March 2009
Switzerland3701 Posts
September 02 2012 15:18 GMT
#17
I'll warn you now: Terran is great, I chose it because I wanted to try and copy my BW idols Boxer and Fantasy (in their micro), but IT IS NOT EASY. At the higher tiers it evens out, but starting out there is a massive difference in the gaming requirements to compete on even grounds.

So, be prepared for people rushing you early on, and without great building placement and unit control you're completely dead, even when you see it coming. You can know all the things a Protoss is doing wrong (e.g. not expanding enough), but if you still aren't super careful, they can 1a2a3a their Goons+Zealots and easily steamroll your un-prepared forces. At lower levels, 'the number of things you have to do to play at the same level' is much higher for Terran. Yes, I'm biased, but you can see the frustration that's coming out when I think about my own ladder experience and the frustrations of learning Terran.

It will most likely really piss you off sometimes when they do what seems like overly easy (to the point of being unfair) shit, and still win. But that's worth it, because playing Terran is a blast, and I would be ashamed to play anything but it q: Lol if you switched to P, you'd have to play PvP, which can also hurt your soul (in how often it happens on iCCup).


TL;DR getting in is HARD and can be quite frustrating, but don't be tempted to compromise on which race you play just because the others may appear easier. You'll have the most fun if you play with the units you like the most, regardless of unfairness.
BW4LYF . . . . . . PM me, I LOVE PMs. . . . . . Long live "NaDa's Body" . . . . . . Fantasy | Bisu/Best | Jaedong . . . . .
don_kyuhote
Profile Blog Joined December 2009
3007 Posts
September 02 2012 17:08 GMT
#18
I've never played SC2, but from what I heard, Terran as a race in SC2 is alot more mobile than Terran in BW. (Hence why Artosis played Zerg and not Terran in SC2 according to himself.)
I think its a general consensus that at lowest level, Terran is the hardest race to play in BW, but it's that much rewarding too
Nothing is more pleasurable to see than your tanks melting your opponent's army. Blue goo if Protoss, Red blood if Zerg.
For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?
surfinbird1
Profile Joined September 2009
Germany999 Posts
September 02 2012 17:26 GMT
#19
Why don't you start with the campaign? It's a reasonable tool to get the hang of the game and get acquainted to the units. Also it's a great story with great characters. I still play the campaign from time to time and it's always an amazing experience. Most importantly have fun!
life of lively to live to life of full life thx to shield battery
ZerphyR
Profile Blog Joined February 2012
Slovenia275 Posts
September 02 2012 18:25 GMT
#20
Thanks all for your advice I'll make an account on iCCup. But how are you ranked whats equivalent to GM in SC2? And why isn't there a ladder in BW?
Marineking, end of discussion !
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