• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 17:52
CEST 23:52
KST 06:52
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
Code S Season 2 (2026) - RO8 Preview4[ASL21] Finals Preview: Two Legacies21Code S Season 2 (2026) - RO12 Preview2herO wins GSL Code S Season 1 (2026)5Code S Season 1 (2026) - RO4 & Finals Preview5
Community News
Weekly Cups (May 18-25): MaxPax wins doubles0Crank Gathers Season 4: BW vs SC2 Team League4Weekly Cups (May 11-17): Classic wins double0Code S Season 1 (2026) - RO8 Results2Weekly Cups (May 4-10): Clem, MaxPax, herO win1
StarCraft 2
General
Code S Season 2 (2026) - RO8 Preview Weekly Cups (May 18-25): MaxPax wins doubles herO wins GSL Code S Season 1 (2026) Code S Season 2 (2026) - RO12 Preview Weekly Cups (May 11-17): Classic wins double
Tourneys
GSL Code S Season 2 (2026) Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament Crank Gathers Season 4: BW vs SC2 Team League GSL Code S Season 1 (2026) Maestros of The Game 2 announcement and schedule !
Strategy
Custom Maps
[D]RTS in all its shapes and glory <3 [A] Nemrods 1/4 players
External Content
Mutation # 527 Hell Train The PondCast: SC2 News & Results Mutation # 526 Rubber and Glue Mutation # 525 Wheel of Misfortune
Brood War
General
Pros React To: ASL S21 Finals BW General Discussion Very long shot - StarCraft x A7X video Pros React to: TvT Masterclass in FlaSh vs Light vespene.gg — BW replays in browser
Tourneys
[ASL21] Grand Finals [Megathread] Daily Proleagues Escore Tournament StarCraft Season 2 Small VOD Thread 2.0
Strategy
Any training maps people recommend? Muta micro map competition [G] Hydra ZvZ: An Introduction Fighting Spirit mining rates
Other Games
General Games
ZeroSpace Megathread Nintendo Switch Thread Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Path of Exile Dawn of War IV
Dota 2
Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion
League of Legends
Heroes of the Storm
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Deck construction bug Heroes of StarCraft mini-set
TL Mafia
Vanilla Mini Mafia Mafia Game Mode Feedback/Ideas TL Mafia Community Thread Five o'clock TL Mafia
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread Russo-Ukrainian War Thread Trading/Investing Thread Dating: How's your luck? European Politico-economics QA Mega-thread
Fan Clubs
The herO Fan Club!
Media & Entertainment
[Manga] One Piece Anime Discussion Thread [Req][Books] Good Fantasy/SciFi books
Sports
2024 - 2026 Football Thread McBoner: A hockey love story TeamLiquid Health and Fitness Initiative For 2023 Formula 1 Discussion
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Facing Challenges in Mobile App Development streaming software
TL Community
The Automated Ban List
Blogs
Customization Drives Loyalty…
TrAiDoS
Why RTS gamers make better f…
gosubay
ramps on octagon
StaticNine
ASL S21 English Commentary…
namkraft
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 2337 users

Overkill is Anti-Deathball - Page 4

Blogs > Falling
Post a Reply
Prev 1 2 3 4 5 6 Next All
jadeo
Profile Joined September 2012
Sweden18 Posts
September 25 2012 17:19 GMT
#61
repost this or a link on the us forum pls
BluemoonSC
Profile Blog Joined November 2010
SoCal8910 Posts
September 25 2012 17:24 GMT
#62
i've been saying this since the launch of SC2. thank you for writing into words what i never could or even bothered to take the time to. a very well done post!

i think this will also solve terran woes in the sense that they will be forced to lay deeper siege lines - something i've always felt will help them VS infestor play. deeper tank lines means that marines can continue to fall back while zerglings and festors are taking damage from the deeper siege line. if the zerg is a-moving, he clumps on a single tank and continues to take nearly free damage (minus the one tank being targeted by the ling ball). it will force more control out of the zerg player and potentially end the notion that zerg requires next to no micro in a big engagement.
LiquidDota Staff@BluemoonGG_
Falling
Profile Blog Joined June 2009
Canada11524 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-09-25 17:43:20
September 25 2012 17:38 GMT
#63
@Sumadin

What you are essentially asking is how do you balance skill. And really you can't except to make sure that all sides also have things they can be skillful at. It moves the mentality away from muta's were terrible in that battle, they need a greater buff vs light or armoured to mutas were terrible in that battle, I needed to control them better. (Incidentally, Thor vs Muta is a rather mundane example of skill compared to muta control in the past. It was simply a useful example for my promote behaviour/ allow response argument.)

That's also why I can't entirely agree with avilo's statement. Supply is certainly part of what makes tanks difficult to mass, but simply dropping the supply cost doesn't increase cool unit interactions. There is just more tanks doing more or less the same thing.

And for the bronze league, I don't know if most of the fancy tricks would help them. Macro is still ridiculously powerful in SC2- especially with the rate of income and macro mechanics. They would still have better success winning with the most units the fastest. So if the units are balanced around how well they can be used skillfully, they'll still work fine in the lower leagues a-moving around- you just have to make lots of them. And if they can figure out how to win with the most units the fastest in addition to the extra skill mastery, chances are they're going to be promoted.

Balancing around skill seems like a nightmare because the developers have less control (+15 light damage and the match-ups will swing back to being balanced.) But it is better because it puts balance more into the players' control on how well you played. That does assume that all sides have more skill based micro with their units (the movement changes would be for everyone of course.) But having the RTS equivalent of skill shot vs skill shot is not a bad problem to have. And that's why people are pushing for things like Carrier micro- it's more skill based unit attacks that help the player with the better control.
ModeratorDavid Duke, Richard Spencer, Nick Fuentes, Daily Stormer... "Some very fine people on both sides"
JaKaTaKSc2
Profile Blog Joined March 2011
United States2787 Posts
September 25 2012 17:50 GMT
#64
Holy shit man. Well done, thanks so much for sharing that.

This and NonY's Carrier Video make me think that reworking some AI in HotS would be really beneficial.
Commentatorhttps://www.youtube.com/JaKaTaKtv
mordek
Profile Blog Joined December 2010
United States12705 Posts
September 25 2012 18:16 GMT
#65
This was presented really well. I am convinced.
It is vanity to love what passes quickly and not to look ahead where eternal joy abides. Tiberius77 | Mordek #1881 "I took a mint!"
BisuDagger
Profile Blog Joined October 2009
Bisutopia19361 Posts
September 25 2012 19:52 GMT
#66
This article reminds me of why I love BW so much more. If the problems you stated well in the OP were fixed correctly, I would most definitely go back to play SC2 for a very very long time. Fix unit clumping + Fix tanks makes a nearly perfect world. I can deal with the units currently in the game. It's the behaviors as a whole that kills it for me.
ModeratorFormer Afreeca Starleague Caster: http://afreeca.tv/ASL2ENG2
ZeromuS
Profile Blog Joined October 2010
Canada13407 Posts
September 25 2012 20:08 GMT
#67
Good Read.

To a certain extent you can already see the pull down laterally and a move across to get a spread function. However, its a little harder to do and involves some manual shifting around, so its quite different. If anything I think the AI clumping makes the game harder in a certain way - you fight the AI and try to make it do what you want it to do and not what it wants to do itself. Though this isn't as big a deal at the moment because the splash doesnt punish it in quite the same way.

If anything, making the tanks able to overkill and keeping the clumping would increase the skill required to engage tanks substantially.

After all, you would need to put more effort into keeping the units apart.

StrategyRTS forever | @ZeromuS_plays | www.twitch.tv/Zeromus_
MavercK
Profile Joined March 2010
Australia2181 Posts
September 25 2012 21:41 GMT
#68
nice read. was very interesting.
depressing the reddit community is so ridiculously hostile towards these threads (atleast this is actual. good. game discussion.)
Brood War Remake - SC2BW - http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=145316
Hayl_Storm
Profile Joined April 2011
The Shire633 Posts
September 26 2012 00:01 GMT
#69
It is so refreshing to read something like this which is well thought out and argued.

10/10

Editor@TL_Hayl // Return of the (Marine)King
trifecta
Profile Joined April 2010
United States6795 Posts
September 26 2012 02:33 GMT
#70
Overkill -> screens of blue goo + hydra corpses were the best. I hope the community is slowly convincing modern blizz that they are sitting on a gold mine of unit ai/engine quirks from BW.
adius
Profile Joined May 2007
United States249 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-09-26 02:46:10
September 26 2012 02:39 GMT
#71
Browder already said that making "smart" unit behavior "dumber" (with smart and dumb referring to how good the units are at going exactly where you tell them and fighting effectively when they get there) is out of the question, regardless of whether it would make the game more fun. Straightforward AI is literally more important than fun in the SC2 design concept. Also they've claimed that it's not possible in the SC2 engine to have multiple "hitscan" attacks that will each kill a unit target that same unit because they'll never acquire the same target at the exact same moment

Also I think redesigning or removing the Colossus is at least at important as that stuff you mentioned because that is a very toxic unit concept to the idea of dynamic battles with interesting unit positioning, regardless of how you change the numbers on it.
Falling
Profile Blog Joined June 2009
Canada11524 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-09-26 03:19:42
September 26 2012 03:19 GMT
#72
Well that's kinda the whole point of my blog. Just because it's newer and it's called 'smart' doesn't make it so. Anymore than saying MMO combat is smarter than FPS combat because it hits every time (minus interrupts). I wanted to go beyond the labels and look at the actual implications of the two.

As for the Colossus, it's kinda a chicken and egg problem. Collosus is problematic to Terran positioning, but if people don't understand what mech positional play is, I'm not necessarily sure they will see how harmful the Collosus is to it. But you can definitely find my posts throughout TL adamantly arguing to change the collosus to something else.

Overkill -> screens of blue goo + hydra corpses were the best.

And this is rather the goal in my mind. Because this is immensely satisfying to pros and newbs alike. The pro's will be able to make use of the subtlies of mech play, but low level players will get tank lines that will shell the enemy lines to pieces.
ModeratorDavid Duke, Richard Spencer, Nick Fuentes, Daily Stormer... "Some very fine people on both sides"
neobowman
Profile Blog Joined March 2008
Canada3324 Posts
September 26 2012 05:31 GMT
#73
I'll be the devil's advocate here. Tanks as far as I know are the only units with smart targetting. However, rarely in Wings of Liberty do you see a mass of tanks large enough to worry about clumping. It's generally just bio with tank support. In HOTS you have seen some levels of mass tanks but everyone's experimenting and not actually going for serious builds so its not yet known if that many tanks is actually viable. If you have only 1 to 5 tanks though, it's not going to be as important.
SEA KarMa
Profile Joined October 2010
Australia452 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-09-26 07:03:26
September 26 2012 07:02 GMT
#74
On September 25 2012 02:00 Indrium wrote:
Show nested quote +
On September 24 2012 07:19 Falling wrote:
One of these days I'll figure out how to write concisely...


Please don't. I enjoy this.

As I mostly play PVT tanks aren't featured much, but I enjoyed the matchup in BW when it was more mech play. Do you think no overkill is one of the reasons mech isn't viable TVP, or is that just a bunch of other factors?


Both. Mech is not viable in PvT for a bunch of reasons. Tanks are not as strong as mentioned. We don't have a key feature in brood war, the mine, which delayed the Protoss significantly. Hellions are decent against zealots like vultures, but are horrendous against stalkers and pretty much everything else. Vultures in brood war in sufficient numbers could take down goons with mines and such, but hellions tickle stalkers comparatively. There are now many units that just plain counter the tank, like immortals, charge zealots, archons, etc. Tank damage got nerfed as well because of no overkill, and so does even worse against the protoss army. Colossus can take many siege tank shots, unlike the brood war counterpart, the reaver. Tanks are harder to produce, more gas and more supply. Probably over 10 more reasons, but I just can't name them off the top of my head.
"terrible, terrible damage". terrible, terrible design.
Salomonster
Profile Joined August 2012
Sweden67 Posts
September 26 2012 10:31 GMT
#75
Hey, I think this is some really awesome ideas.
I'm a zerg player and I have been thinking along theese lines about the siege tank for quite a long time. the way it works today doesn't really feel logical, and I always thought it would be a more interesting unit if it would be more powerful and sacrifice more. Your post is just a much better way of describing what I've already been thinking about.
I think a change like this also would give bio/mech more dimensions.

I didn't play BW so I have no experience with how the siege tank worked back then, but what I have seen from BW the maps was alot different. How do you think a change like this would work on the current map pool, or just on maps designed by todays standards? I'm mainly thinking about BW maps seemed alot mor open spaced than curren sc2 maps, and that elevations seems more common in sc2. (I might be totally wrong about that) wouldn't this type of mechanic be very powerful especially in the early midgames on maps with lots of chokes and few attack paths?

I would really like to hear some oppinions about this.
twitch.tv/salomonster
MavercK
Profile Joined March 2010
Australia2181 Posts
September 26 2012 12:33 GMT
#76
On September 26 2012 14:31 neobowman wrote:
I'll be the devil's advocate here. Tanks as far as I know are the only units with smart targetting. However, rarely in Wings of Liberty do you see a mass of tanks large enough to worry about clumping. It's generally just bio with tank support. In HOTS you have seen some levels of mass tanks but everyone's experimenting and not actually going for serious builds so its not yet known if that many tanks is actually viable. If you have only 1 to 5 tanks though, it's not going to be as important.


shrug, tanks being 3 food over 2 food is a pretty big deal in how many you can make.
im amazed at sc2 when both players max in 11 minutes and have tiny, insignificant armies. it's also why i feel like carriers have a hard time finding their place.
bw players had a REALLY hard time maxing. like in all my watching of BW i can't think of many games where both players max. only time i really see it, is when one player is ahead but can't end it. so he just macros.
so both players max in 11 minutes and then what, how to build carriers. you have to sac your army to build them, but then you're vulnerable for quite awhile.
Brood War Remake - SC2BW - http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=145316
MrF
Profile Joined October 2011
United States320 Posts
September 26 2012 15:29 GMT
#77
I don't quite know how to respond to this, I don't really like this idea, tanks are fine as they are. They game is fun to watch and play and I believe that while composition is important control and positional strategy are still the major factors in winning games. I don't see the boring death-ball centric games that (according to some) apparently plague the pro-scene, I see exiting nail biting games with interesting strategy choices and great unit control, positional battles where who gets the better engagement can change the tide of a game. I don't think changing the tanks as you said would necessarily improve the game, what I know is that it would drastically change the balance of the game and the way you have to use tanks and I don't see a good reason to go through all that based on a hypothetical benefit that you think would be achieved. No offense and I hope I didn't sound harsh I just see no good reason to make massive changes to the game. I read you posts and understand your points, I just don't agree with them.
HunterXHunter is awesome
Mazer
Profile Joined April 2008
Canada1086 Posts
September 26 2012 19:55 GMT
#78
Glad to see someone pointing out ways SC2 can be improved without adding some combination of new units. I've all but stopped watching SCII because the vast majority of games are deathball oriented and it's plain boring to watch. I suppose it's a preference thing but I would really like to see some gameplay changes made similar to what you're suggesting.

Thanks for the write-up. Maybe if Blizzard sees this, they might re-consider their approach to the game..
ArcticRaven
Profile Joined August 2011
France1406 Posts
September 26 2012 20:06 GMT
#79
On September 27 2012 00:29 MrF wrote:
I don't quite know how to respond to this, I don't really like this idea, tanks are fine as they are. They game is fun to watch and play and I believe that while composition is important control and positional strategy are still the major factors in winning games. I don't see the boring death-ball centric games that (according to some) apparently plague the pro-scene, I see exiting nail biting games with interesting strategy choices and great unit control, positional battles where who gets the better engagement can change the tide of a game. I don't think changing the tanks as you said would necessarily improve the game, what I know is that it would drastically change the balance of the game and the way you have to use tanks and I don't see a good reason to go through all that based on a hypothetical benefit that you think would be achieved. No offense and I hope I didn't sound harsh I just see no good reason to make massive changes to the game. I read you posts and understand your points, I just don't agree with them.


You don't agree ? Sure, that's no problem. Now give arguments to support it. "I don't agree" isn't enoug. Why do you not agree ?
[Govie] Wierd shit, on a 6 game AP winning streak with KOTL in the trench. I searched gandalf quotes and spammed them all game long, trenchwarfare247, whateva it takes!
kineSiS-
Profile Blog Joined September 2009
Korea (South)1068 Posts
September 26 2012 20:55 GMT
#80
On September 24 2012 08:17 HawaiianPig wrote:
Love these blogs, they explain some of the finer points of what made mech work in BW.

....But it's per se not "per say"


Sadly, we didn't have certain units that made Mech an unviable strategy like immortals and the lack of dark swarm is also problematic.
Prev 1 2 3 4 5 6 Next All
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
Next event in 2h 8m
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
JuggernautJason119
ProTech85
StarCraft: Brood War
NaDa 8
Dota 2
monkeys_forever193
League of Legends
Doublelift2394
Counter-Strike
tarik_tv4377
Coldzera 1872
fl0m1500
Fnx 1287
Pyrionflax162
Other Games
summit1g5228
Grubby3764
Liquid`RaSZi1974
FrodaN695
hungrybox463
mouzStarbuck319
Mew2King153
ViBE114
UpATreeSC69
ZombieGrub37
Organizations
Other Games
BasetradeTV217
Counter-Strike
PGL199
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
[ Show 18 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• musti20045 27
• Reevou 6
• Kozan
• LaughNgamezSOOP
• sooper7s
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Migwel
• IndyKCrew
StarCraft: Brood War
• blackmanpl 47
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
• BSLYoutube
Dota 2
• lizZardDota241
Other Games
• imaqtpie1716
• Scarra1186
• WagamamaTV319
• Shiphtur296
Upcoming Events
Replay Cast
2h 8m
GSL
11h 38m
Maru vs SHIN
Zoun vs Rogue
WardiTV Spring Champion…
14h 8m
SKillous vs Strange
Lambo vs Strange
Ryung vs Strange
Lambo vs Ryung
Ryung vs SKillous
Lambo vs SKillous
OSC
21h 8m
Replay Cast
1d 2h
Maestros of the Game
1d 15h
Replay Cast
2 days
RSL Revival
2 days
Lambo vs SHIN
Solar vs Rogue
herO vs Clem
Maestros of the Game
2 days
IPSL
2 days
ZZZero vs WorsT
Julia vs eOnzErG
[ Show More ]
Replay Cast
3 days
RSL Revival
3 days
Maestros of the Game
3 days
IPSL
3 days
Dragon vs Artosis
dxtr13 vs Hawk
BSL
3 days
Wardi Open
4 days
Monday Night Weeklies
4 days
Replay Cast
5 days
Sparkling Tuna Cup
5 days
WardiTV Spring Champion…
5 days
Maestros of the Game
5 days
The PondCast
6 days
Maestros of the Game
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

ASL Season 21
2026 GSL S1
Heroes Pulsing #1

Ongoing

2026 KK StarCraft Pro League
BSL Season 22
IPSL Spring 2026
KCM Race Survival 2026 Season 2
KK 2v2 League Season 1
Acropolis #4
CSCL: Masked Kings S4
SCTL 2026 Spring
WardiTV Spring 2026
2026 GSL S2
RSL Revival: Season 5
Stake Ranked Episode 2
CS Asia Championships 2026
Asian Champions League 2026
IEM Atlanta 2026
PGL Astana 2026
BLAST Rivals Spring 2026
IEM Rio 2026
PGL Bucharest 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 1
BLAST Open Spring 2026
ESL Pro League S23 Finals

Upcoming

Escore Tournament S2: King of Kings
YSL S3
BSL 22 Non-Korean Championship
CSLAN 4
Blizzard Classic Cup 2026
Kung Fu Cup 2026 Grand Finals
CranK Gathers Season 4: BW vs SC2 Team League
HSC XXIX
uThermal 2v2 2026 Main Event
Maestros of the Game 2
Bounty Cup 2026
BLAST Bounty Summer 2026
BLAST Bounty Summer Qual
Stake Ranked Episode 3
XSE Pro League 2026
IEM Cologne Major 2026
TLPD

1. ByuN
2. TY
3. Dark
4. Solar
5. Stats
6. Nerchio
7. sOs
8. soO
9. INnoVation
10. Elazer
1. Rain
2. Flash
3. EffOrt
4. Last
5. Bisu
6. Soulkey
7. Mini
8. Sharp
Sidebar Settings...

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2026 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.