EPTResource Management
One thing that has always bothered me about multiplayer Starcraft is the absence of scarcity as a factor in strategy. Minerals and gas are always in abundance, and good play involves not only the most efficient means of spending those resources, but the fastest way of doing so as well. From the perspective of someone who has tried a very wide variety of RTS games, this abundance feels like what Big Game Hunters feels like to competitive Starcraft players.
However, those are just the in-game resources. Starcraft does have limited resources when you look at the big picture: the game and the players that play it.
Internal Resources
- Minerals
- Gas
- Supply
- Time
- Larvae (Zerg)
External Resources
- APM - The best players can reach 500+ sustained APM. Most of us hover at around 60 to 90 APM.
- Attention - Players routinely miss details that spectators might pick up. Players routinely notice cloaked units that their units would completely ignore due to lack of detection.
- Equipment - As a PC game, players need a computer good enough to run Starcraft 2 without slowing down the game, as well as a broadband Internet connection to play with each other.
- Free Time - Most players have to go to school and/or work. This significantly cuts down on the free time they can devote to the game.
Most of us have no control over our opponents' equipment and free time. However, we do have some measure of control over their APM and their attention.
David Kim's Terrorism Emporium
One of the most controversial changes to the game in recent years has been the overwhelming potency of worker harassment. A player who isn't paying attention at the right time can lose all of his workers and thus the game in a matter of seconds (Widow Mines, Oracles, fast-regenerating Mutalisks, etc.). Essentially, the optimal strategy in Starcraft 2 is terrorism: ignore the enemy's army and go straight for soft targets: the civilians that support the war effort.
The problem isn't that worker harassment is difficult to stop, but rather that it requires near-perfect attention to stop. Killing an Oracle with unupgraded Marines is easy. Noticing the Oracle flying in, let alone which direction it's coming from, is much harder if you're playing normally.
It isn't just worker harassment that requires attention to stop. Units like the Widow Mine, the Liberator, the Ravager, and the Disruptor are countered by the enemy player paying attention to his army. These units trade very favorably against superior armies on attack-move. However, if the enemy player is paying attention, their effectiveness greatly decreases. A little APM and attention invested into army control counters the telegraphed attacks of these three units.
However, the fact that these units forced your opponent to invest some of his limited APM and attention towards countering them is an advantage in and of itself. Just like real-life terrorism, the true threat behind these units is not their raw power or the amount of damage they can deal, but rather the disruption they cause to our comfortable routine. Focus on micro and your macro suffers. Focus on macro and your micro suffers. Make no increase in security and the terrorists get through. Increase security too much and our freedom suffers.
The Best Defense is a Good Offense
In 1v1, you only have to worry about yourself and your opponent. Team games complicate this by added two, four, or even six more players into the mix. Furthermore, you not only have to keep track of your opponents, but your allies as well. You can't just randomly decide to move out without telling your allies. You can't just power drone and ignore your allies' request for an Overlord spotter or an Overseer for detection.
Since my return to team games, I have discovered that some strategies are disproportionately more effective in team games than in 1v1. A lot of these strategies involve attacking the enemy's limited APM and attention.
You are playing 1v1. "Nuclear launch detected." You go through each of your bases looking for the red dot. You find it and move your workers away. Your buildings take a pounding, but you take minimal damage from the blast.
You are playing 2v2. "Nuclear launch detected." Both you and your ally search through your respective bases looking for the telltale red dot. Where is it? Finally, you ping the location of the dot and alert your ally to it. However, this momentary distraction allowed your opponents to advance and destroy a large chunk of your army.
You are playing 3v3. "Nuclear launch detected." All three of you drop everything to search for that red dot of doom. "Nuclear launch detected. Nuclear launch detected." Now the three of you are looking for three red dots that could be anywhere. One of your allies wasn't paying attention and forgot to lower his supply depot, trapping some of your units in the blast radius.
You are playing 4v4. "Our allies are being attacked." Not a problem. Your ally built Photon Cannons, so those Mutalisks shouldn't be able to... "Our ally's base is under attack." Ah, crap, they found a Pylon not covered by his defenses. You ping the Mutalisks, and your other allies' Stalkers and Hydralisks drive them out from your Protoss ally's base. "Our SCVs are under attack." Fuck, you forgot to build Missile Turrets! While the four of you are chasing around Mutalisks to the tune of Yakety Sax, your other three opponents were able to expand and build up a much larger army.
The best defense is a good offense. The best way to protect your attention and APM from the enemy is to attack the enemy's attention and APM. Force them to allocate their attention and APM towards defending against your attacks so you and your allies can expand and take map control.
Limited Resources
When you look at attention and APM as limited resources in Starcraft 2, all the controversial units in the game suddenly make much more sense. Oracles, Widow Mines, Ravagers, and Disruptors directly attack your attention and APM. If you devote none of these resources against them, you will lose internal resources: minerals and gas mostly, but also time due to the time it takes to rebuild your economy and/or army.
Allocating these limited resources efficiently, as well as protecting them from your opponent and attack your opponent's supply of them is an important part of the new Starcraft, both in 1v1 and in team games.
