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So quick background, I haven’t played a game of sc2 in like 2 years but I used to play at a high masters level or something idk, i thought the game was dead. However, I’ve been perusing some threads on TL and they said that blizzard fucked up again and removed simplified macromechanics for each race. Below are the changes and a graph of the macro apm for each race over 10 minutes
Terran:
Auto Mule no energy
Zerg:
Auto injects
Protoss:
We have macro mechanics?
So basically they just decided to buff the shit out of zerg as if they needed more help to begin with. And they made all the races closer to protoss. I don’t have a problem with this as I’m a protoss player, and the reason I played protoss was so I wouldn’t have to deal with macro mechanics. I didn't even have chronoboost hotkeyed cause its a useless ability.
Thinking about it though, I think im just most worried that the other races will get a taste of the joy of playing protoss, and that they’ll simplify mechanics even further so that all they need to do is press f2 + a, while they sit back and bm the other player. If the game reaches this point I don't think I'll ever be able to play because then I'll have to think about which race to play which will just confuse me even further. I chose protoss so I wouldn't have to make choices and just all-in. Kind of how I just bought ff13 for the cut scenes, linear story, and auto battle.
  
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"Blablabla, I don't play the game so I have no idea what is happening but, blablabla it all sucks" was all I could read here w/e.
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The removal of macro mechanics is a pointless thing to do on its own, but if it's followed with mechanics that make macro naturally more difficult or more optimizable, I think it might be one of the best ways in which Blizzard could make SC2 fun to play.
This isn't about fucking balance (FOR ONCE), so don't bring up balance here. For all its faults (and trust me, I see many faults), balance has always been good. If Zerg is OP now because its macro mechanic was the hardest to use, then I'm relatively confident that they'll find a way to balance it by other means.
From my perspective, the removal of macro mechanics is one of the changes that Blizzard can make that just actually MIGHT help to turn the game around. I don't know why you left, but I stopped playing not because of balance, but because the game got boring. I played at high masters for the first few seasons of WoL and by the time HotS came out I was gone and now I've been following the scene from afar.
I think that macro mechanics contributed to that in a huge way, for me and for others. The relationship is relatively indirect though. The macro mechanics on their own don't seem problematic, but they contribute to a fast paced growth of the forces of the players which devalues individual units. In another thread I wrote about how one of the most interesting parts of BW was the early game. In PvT, you'd have like one zealot and 2 range upgraded dragoons harassing the front bunker of the T's expansion while he repaired it. Three units, maybe with a fourth making its way. And the T had to get his one tank. Once his ONE tank came out, the dragoon push was over. Now don't you lose one dragoon at that point, the loss of one dragoon is disastrous!
But in SC2 you're 4 minutes into the game and your economy is booming left and right as you rapidly plunder the fuck out of your minerals because you chrono boost, mule or push out insane numbers of drones. You lose a unit, it doesn't matter all that much because the scope of your economy allows you to compensate and to attenuate the loss.
The early game is dead except for cheese, and simultaneously, someone made a thread that explained how having 3 active bases at the same time is pretty much as much as you'll need in most games. In SCBW, perhaps the coolest thing was battle for map control. Zergs on 8 bases, terrans on 5, insane maginot lines that cut the map in a half and spanned 4 screens. Macro was you couldn't easily adjust to losing a base or a bunch of workers by pumping them out. Macro was hard because every worker cost a few actions to produce and then to send to work. Macro was hard because you could actually spend the resources you gathered off 5+ bases a lot of the time.
All these things contributed, IMO, to make the game more exciting. It made units more important throughout the game, it made workers vastly less disposable, it made expansions more important and it made map control a central resource whenever the players went to the lategame. And I'm not saying that SC2 never has any of these things, they just don't seem as important because the emphasis is less on positioning and more on squeezing out a huge amount of units.
I searched youtube for "Bisu vs. Flash" and picked a random OSL game and took an screenshot of the pixelated minimap at a random point in the lategame.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/KyGmlLx.jpg)
Look how much shit is going on, and this isn't cherry picked, it's not one of the most dynamic games by any stretch of the imagination. You have Bisu in yellow with an arch around Flash moving armies back and forth around the map while Flash is slowly edging forward to prevent him from playing the attrition game. Games were commonly like this. I've been watching some SC2 lately, and these things happen to a lesser extent and it's pretty cool when it does, but very often you just get two separate blocks bouncing at each other.
I expect if I posted this on a more high-visibility topic I'd be criticized for at least a few things, some of which are fair:
Positioning, map control, expansions, workers, etc. are all important in SC2.
Yes. I personally believe that they're less important.
You're comparing SC2 and BW, you're a purist and an asshole. Comparing games is not admissible in the imaginary world I live in.
Welcome to the real world. People compare things. It doesn't need they want them to be identical, it just means that certain principles are perhaps desirable.
You fundamentally misunderstand X.
Yes maybe I do. And I'm sure you fundamentally misunderstand Y. Let's talk about it maybe?
Making a lot of units is more fun than map control and positioning and having to work hard to get a strong economy.
You're allowed to think so, but I sincerely believe that you're the minority and people are leaving the game because they disagree.
I'm offended because you're harshly criticizing my beloved game that I love as it currently is, especially since we have very different philosophies and I can't imagine that someone would disagree with my preferences and tastes.
Sorry from the bottom of my heart.
You're whining.
Oh!
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"I haven't played the game in 2 years but used to be Masters level or something, thought the game was dead"
Welp.
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United States2267 Posts
On September 08 2015 08:38 MountainDewJunkie wrote:
More girl blogs, bro
We want more girl blogs!
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most of the ff games are for the cut scenes, linear story, and auto battle (heavily used for grinding/ getting through random battles)
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On September 08 2015 23:25 Epishade wrote:We want more girl blogs!
Summer vacation + living at the parents = massive dry spell
Though I could blog about the tinder dates I went on. As the number 1 girl blogger on TL...
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EPT
