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[A] Starbow - Page 182

Forum Index > SC2 Maps & Custom Games
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Zaphod Beeblebrox
Profile Joined December 2010
Denmark697 Posts
December 16 2012 23:46 GMT
#3621
I do think the Scout is the most fitting unit to the Protoss arsenal in the current state. The question is what we can do to make it more interesting.

In BW the scout was a joke unit for 4 reasons (that Blizzard in their genius have replicated on some units in SC2)

It did not bring anything to the battlefield that other units didn't do better (Reaper problem)

It had no interesting interactions with other units, or itself (Roach problem, also Hydras to some extend)

Buildtime was too high to rush it or build enough to make them part of your core army (SC2 Carrier problem)

Fleet beacon upgrades were nessesary to even make them usable (Reapers have this too in a way)


Compare this to the other units on the playing field, its just abysmal. Quite a few of the SC2 air units share 2 or more of these problems, but Blizzard gave them stats that makes them mandatory (if boring) when dealing with certain situations (Corrupters, Voidrays)

Looking at other air units from BW

Wraiths were fragile and fast, with cloak to give them an extra edge.

Mutalisks gave strong anti groound attacks, with decent anti air and great speed.

Corsairs were simple and fast to build, gave easy air control and were a joy to micro.

Valkyries were clumsy and kinda slow, but packed the best AtA weapons in the game.

Scourges were fast cheap killers, that were very adapt at destroying all your opponants air. The real brilliance of Scourges are their interactions with all the units that can actually kill them before they land IF MICROED.

Carriers were iconic because of their unique idea. It also helped a lot that they had incredibly clomplex counter play, and ways to counter the counter play. Add to this that they had great micro potential and were really cost effective.

Battlecruisers were bland if not for the Yamato cannon, and the fact that they actually had great range and an instant AtA attack (matters more than you might think)

Guardians were kinda bland, but still had their range to make them stand out a bit.

Devourers were a great design, that sadly didn't see much play because of the tech requirement (they were only used in hive tech ZvZ). One of the strongest anti air units in the game with sloooooow attack speed.


In short, most of them had identity, and a unique set of abilities that made them microable and capable of being used by skilled players. The scout was basically a slower, tougher, more expensive and slightly stronger wraith.
In other words it was a marauder of the sky - only with a much longer build time and a stim that requires an 300/200 building to reseach, that also happens to unlock a unit with only slightly higher cost, and much better combat stats.

So how to fix the Scout?

Give it identity - Something unique that gives it a clear purpose. I proposed a short range, fast heavy hitter, meant for getting up close in direct engagements or fast snipes. This is probably not the best design, but at least it makes it unique.

Give it interactions - eg. short range will give it some interesting interactions with anti air. If it has any well designed ability or just extreme stats in some way or another, this can go a long way.

Make sure the unit is immediately usable, with upgrades that is NOT mandatory, but gives enough that air-toss will want them ASAP.
Go try StarBow on the Arcade. TL thread: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=440661
fietstas
Profile Joined August 2010
Netherlands43 Posts
December 16 2012 23:47 GMT
#3622
i don't think people will use the scout if you focus on the corsair/gravity + scout combo with scouts doing anti armored.

you get a situation where
- anti air damage vs armored compared to cost is better for scout than corsair
- you can get corsairs in range of armored ground units and lift them
- you can keep your corsairs alive while killing the ground units

there are only 2 units that could allow this; the reaver and the tank, and both are usually protected by stalkers/golliaths/marines.

against any other unit it is likely to be more effective to mass up corsairs and just kill them with that.


the void ray could be added like fishgle mentioned above:

-Attack removed.
-New Ability: Tear A Void
The Void Ray targets an area and begins channeling its beam, after 6.2 seconds, it generates an Anti-Matter field that does 20 (+10 vs armor) damage per second to all ground units in a 2 radius area. Any movement orders (or forced movement) will break the channel.
-New Upgrade at Fleet Beacon: Prismatic Amplification 100/100/100. Grants +2 range to the Void Ray’s Anti-Matter Field ability.
JohnnyZerg
Profile Joined July 2012
Italy378 Posts
December 17 2012 01:43 GMT
#3623
On December 17 2012 08:21 Fishgle wrote:
for Hatchery/Lair/Hive Larva: I like the extra armor, and having a greater max larva, but not increased production. Increasing larva production should be the Queen's job, imo.

From hatchey to hive costs 350min 250gas 200sec, If we consider hatchey, you must add 300min and 100 sec, but for building a hatchery we need to build of 1 drone, who to costs others 50 min. Total 700min 250gas 300sec. You build really to a hive in an expansion for only 3 armor? I believe little. And then with a rate as high as larvae, zerg should be careful to use them often, because if you forget for 30 seconds, you've lost so much.
+ Show Spoiler +
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewpost.php?post_id=17260725
Xiphias
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
Norway2223 Posts
December 17 2012 05:54 GMT
#3624
On December 17 2012 08:47 fietstas wrote:
i don't think people will use the scout if you focus on the corsair/gravity + scout combo with scouts doing anti armored.

you get a situation where
- anti air damage vs armored compared to cost is better for scout than corsair
- you can get corsairs in range of armored ground units and lift them
- you can keep your corsairs alive while killing the ground units

there are only 2 units that could allow this; the reaver and the tank, and both are usually protected by stalkers/golliaths/marines.

against any other unit it is likely to be more effective to mass up corsairs and just kill them with that.


the void ray could be added like fishgle mentioned above:

-Attack removed.
-New Ability: Tear A Void
The Void Ray targets an area and begins channeling its beam, after 6.2 seconds, it generates an Anti-Matter field that does 20 (+10 vs armor) damage per second to all ground units in a 2 radius area. Any movement orders (or forced movement) will break the channel.
-New Upgrade at Fleet Beacon: Prismatic Amplification 100/100/100. Grants +2 range to the Void Ray’s Anti-Matter Field ability.


Seems similar to what onegoal suggested (?) Would be fun to give it a try. I think this could work very well, especially vs zerg. Opening air build is so dangours atm because of hydrabust, chrono out a voidray and you might be able to hold better. (Should not be instant-hold though)
aka KanBan85. Working on Starbow.
Fishgle
Profile Blog Joined May 2011
United States2174 Posts
December 17 2012 06:51 GMT
#3625
On December 17 2012 14:54 Xiphias wrote:
Show nested quote +
On December 17 2012 08:47 fietstas wrote:
i don't think people will use the scout if you focus on the corsair/gravity + scout combo with scouts doing anti armored.

you get a situation where
- anti air damage vs armored compared to cost is better for scout than corsair
- you can get corsairs in range of armored ground units and lift them
- you can keep your corsairs alive while killing the ground units

there are only 2 units that could allow this; the reaver and the tank, and both are usually protected by stalkers/golliaths/marines.

against any other unit it is likely to be more effective to mass up corsairs and just kill them with that.


the void ray could be added like fishgle mentioned above:

-Attack removed.
-New Ability: Tear A Void
The Void Ray targets an area and begins channeling its beam, after 6.2 seconds, it generates an Anti-Matter field that does 20 (+10 vs armor) damage per second to all ground units in a 2 radius area. Any movement orders (or forced movement) will break the channel.
-New Upgrade at Fleet Beacon: Prismatic Amplification 100/100/100. Grants +2 range to the Void Ray’s Anti-Matter Field ability.


Seems similar to what onegoal suggested (?) Would be fun to give it a try. I think this could work very well, especially vs zerg. Opening air build is so dangours atm because of hydrabust, chrono out a voidray and you might be able to hold better. (Should not be instant-hold though)

yep. that was copy-pasted from the one-goal thread. There's tons of great ideas in there.
aka ChillyGonzalo / GnozL
Xiphias
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
Norway2223 Posts
December 17 2012 07:29 GMT
#3626
Can this be used against worker-lines? Proxy stargate might be broken in this case....
aka KanBan85. Working on Starbow.
Fishgle
Profile Blog Joined May 2011
United States2174 Posts
December 17 2012 07:59 GMT
#3627
it can, but the charge-up time is very long, and void ray can't move or else it loses charge. Range is only 5, and void rays have little hp (and no attack) , so Marines and Queens hold it pretty easy.
aka ChillyGonzalo / GnozL
Traceback
Profile Joined October 2010
United States469 Posts
December 17 2012 08:53 GMT
#3628
What ever you do, don't screw up early game TvP again like the voidray basically did single handily
Kabel
Profile Joined September 2009
Sweden1746 Posts
December 17 2012 09:08 GMT
#3629
@Fishingle about Void Shell

Nice ideas that can broaden the spell.

@Scouts

Good post Zaphod. Things that were a bit dull in BW have the chance to become better and more interesting here. As you say, the Scout can become more unique while at the same time remain simple. The most important thing is that it has its place in the game. I do not want it to feel redundadnt, like the BW Scout felt..

The model is quite boring compared to other SC2 units - like the Void ray or Phoenix. But I think we have to live with it, unless anyone here can give me a hint about a better model or even create one!


@Hatchery/Lair/Hive

If it turns out that they are too weak and die easily from drops, I can increase HP or armor.


@The Void ray

The idea for the Void ray proposed by the OneGoal team sounds interesting. I am sure it will turn out good in their project. But I do not think it would fit into Starbow context. One of the strongest reasons I removed Void ray is due to its strong air to ground attack that can come relatively early in the game. It screws up certain match ups, because mainly Terran do not have any good way to handle it.

It is a puzzle what kind of relationship one chooses to create between the races. I have gone for a more BW-oriented style in this project cause I think some of those relationships are worth to maintain for a better game. That also means that certain SC2 units do not fit into it, unfortunatly.



Creator of Starbow
fietstas
Profile Joined August 2010
Netherlands43 Posts
December 17 2012 13:32 GMT
#3630
no offense but it's a joke that the void ray would not fit because it's too good against ground while the banshee is fine
JohnnyZerg
Profile Joined July 2012
Italy378 Posts
December 17 2012 14:00 GMT
#3631
On December 17 2012 22:32 fietstas wrote:
no offense but it's a joke that the void ray would not fit because it's too good against ground while the banshee is fine

Currently, only mechs can compete against protoss, if we give a Protoss air unit strong against ground unit, the mech finds himself in difficulty (because of its low mobility).

In T vs. T, benshee can bring benefit, being strong against ground units can avoid game position (tanks vs tanks).

@Ghost
It has evolved much it within a few months. I propose some changes to make it strong in the hands of an expert:

Lockdown is already available and does not require research.
+ Show Spoiler +
Why? the lockdown costs 75 energy, and if the player wants to get ghost with lockdown ready to develop research + 25 energy.


Snipe is currently broken.
Propose that cost 50 energy, but does 100 - 50 damage vs massive.
+ Show Spoiler +
In this way you can answer against ht / Infestor, and the opponent must be very careful


Cloack
In my opinion it should cost 25 energy. Once activated, the ghost becomes invisible for 30 seconds, and does not consume energy. Gone are the 30 seconds, wait 60 seconds before you can re-use the skills.
+ Show Spoiler +
Why? The ghost uses cloack to launch his spell with greater confidence. That Is The energy consumed slowly, sometimes does not make you throw some spells. Ex: ops! 73 energy (2 energy were subtracted from the cloack). I do not want this to happen. Better to give a set time, active cloack, spell casting and run.


Ghost is a tactical unity able to delete / deactivate some units currently dangerous.
+ Show Spoiler +
these changes will not be applied -.-
Von
Profile Joined May 2009
United States363 Posts
December 17 2012 17:36 GMT
#3632
On December 17 2012 23:00 JohnnyZerg wrote:
Currently, only mechs can compete against protoss, if we give a Protoss air unit strong against ground unit, the mech finds himself in difficulty (because of its low mobility).


Which (btw) makes perfect sense, in the wider conceptual context:

Humans fighting a technologically superior super-race of aliens, would fight with primarily mech and whatever hi-tech
we had.

The idea that the best way - or even an alternative best way - to fight this race, would be with hoards of drugged up marines as the core of the army would be pathetic.

This is entirely the opposite in WoL.


If its not fun I dont want it.
SiskosGoatee
Profile Blog Joined May 2012
Albania1482 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-12-17 18:17:26
December 17 2012 18:14 GMT
#3633
On December 17 2012 08:46 Zaphod Beeblebrox wrote:
I do think the Scout is the most fitting unit to the Protoss arsenal in the current state. The question is what we can do to make it more interesting.

In BW the scout was a joke unit for 4 reasons (that Blizzard in their genius have replicated on some units in SC2)

It did not bring anything to the battlefield that other units didn't do better (Reaper problem)

It had no interesting interactions with other units, or itself (Roach problem, also Hydras to some extend)

Buildtime was too high to rush it or build enough to make them part of your core army (SC2 Carrier problem)

Fleet beacon upgrades were nessesary to even make them usable (Reapers have this too in a way)


Compare this to the other units on the playing field, its just abysmal. Quite a few of the SC2 air units share 2 or more of these problems, but Blizzard gave them stats that makes them mandatory (if boring) when dealing with certain situations (Corrupters, Voidrays)

Looking at other air units from BW

Wraiths were fragile and fast, with cloak to give them an extra edge.

Mutalisks gave strong anti groound attacks, with decent anti air and great speed.

Corsairs were simple and fast to build, gave easy air control and were a joy to micro.

Valkyries were clumsy and kinda slow, but packed the best AtA weapons in the game.

Scourges were fast cheap killers, that were very adapt at destroying all your opponants air. The real brilliance of Scourges are their interactions with all the units that can actually kill them before they land IF MICROED.

Carriers were iconic because of their unique idea. It also helped a lot that they had incredibly clomplex counter play, and ways to counter the counter play. Add to this that they had great micro potential and were really cost effective.

Battlecruisers were bland if not for the Yamato cannon, and the fact that they actually had great range and an instant AtA attack (matters more than you might think)

Guardians were kinda bland, but still had their range to make them stand out a bit.

Devourers were a great design, that sadly didn't see much play because of the tech requirement (they were only used in hive tech ZvZ). One of the strongest anti air units in the game with sloooooow attack speed.


In short, most of them had identity, and a unique set of abilities that made them microable and capable of being used by skilled players. The scout was basically a slower, tougher, more expensive and slightly stronger wraith.
In other words it was a marauder of the sky - only with a much longer build time and a stim that requires an 300/200 building to reseach, that also happens to unlock a unit with only slightly higher cost, and much better combat stats.

So how to fix the Scout?

Give it identity - Something unique that gives it a clear purpose. I proposed a short range, fast heavy hitter, meant for getting up close in direct engagements or fast snipes. This is probably not the best design, but at least it makes it unique.

Give it interactions - eg. short range will give it some interesting interactions with anti air. If it has any well designed ability or just extreme stats in some way or another, this can go a long way.

Make sure the unit is immediately usable, with upgrades that is NOT mandatory, but gives enough that air-toss will want them ASAP.
I'm pretty sure the only reason the scout isn't used in BW is because the units it legitimately counters, BC's, Guardians, Carriers, are seldom deployed against protoss. The same reason you seldom see carriers, not a lot of people make tanks and thors versus protoss.

The reason people did make wraiths was because carriers and guardians are more common versus Terran etc.

On December 18 2012 02:36 Von wrote:
Show nested quote +
On December 17 2012 23:00 JohnnyZerg wrote:
Currently, only mechs can compete against protoss, if we give a Protoss air unit strong against ground unit, the mech finds himself in difficulty (because of its low mobility).


Which (btw) makes perfect sense, in the wider conceptual context:

Humans fighting a technologically superior super-race of aliens, would fight with primarily mech and whatever hi-tech
we had.

The idea that the best way - or even an alternative best way - to fight this race, would be with hoards of drugged up marines as the core of the army would be pathetic.

This is entirely the opposite in WoL.


Hardly, the fact that humans beat a technologically advanced army by turtling and defending until they have an unstoppable deathball that is for some reason superior in firepower to the armada of vastly technologically superior aliens does not make sense. If anything, the fact that Terrans attempt guerillia warfare and using some good old Terran inginuity to beat a technologically superior foe makes all the more sense lore wise and that's typically how it works in films. It's not 'Oh, aliens attack us whose technology far exceeds our own, let's turtle and turtle and survive every onslaught until our army is big enough to crush it.' it would more be 'Let's infiltrate their bases and try to disable them from the inside.'
WCS Apartheid cometh, all hail the casual audience, death to merit and hard work.
Zaphod Beeblebrox
Profile Joined December 2010
Denmark697 Posts
December 17 2012 18:41 GMT
#3634
On December 18 2012 03:14 SiskosGoatee wrote:
I'm pretty sure the only reason the scout isn't used in BW is because the units it legitimately counters, BC's, Guardians, Carriers, are seldom deployed against protoss. The same reason you seldom see carriers, not a lot of people make tanks and thors versus protoss.

The reason people did make wraiths was because carriers and guardians are more common versus Terran etc.


Ehm - no. The reason people made Wraiths were because they were a good harassment unit, and a micro intensive alternative to building a standard army in many cases. They also had some use in countering heavy air, but more often the Terran would use Goliaths for that, as the Wraith is too fragile for it to go up against BC's or Carriers.

The Scout however is a fair counter to heavy air - but they still need the speed upgrade to be usable, and High templars and Dragoons usually deal with heavy air anyways.

BW was never a game of direct counters, and blaming the rarety of other units for why the Scout was never used is kinda silly. Instead look at its painfully slow buildtime, and its reliance on the speed upgrade to do ANYTHING usefull - and then add that it does not do anything a Corsair, Dragoon or Shuttle doesn't do better.
Go try StarBow on the Arcade. TL thread: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=440661
SiskosGoatee
Profile Blog Joined May 2012
Albania1482 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-12-17 19:02:01
December 17 2012 19:01 GMT
#3635
On December 18 2012 03:41 Zaphod Beeblebrox wrote:
Show nested quote +
On December 18 2012 03:14 SiskosGoatee wrote:
I'm pretty sure the only reason the scout isn't used in BW is because the units it legitimately counters, BC's, Guardians, Carriers, are seldom deployed against protoss. The same reason you seldom see carriers, not a lot of people make tanks and thors versus protoss.

The reason people did make wraiths was because carriers and guardians are more common versus Terran etc.


Ehm - no. The reason people made Wraiths were because they were a good harassment unit, and a micro intensive alternative to building a standard army in many cases. They also had some use in countering heavy air, but more often the Terran would use Goliaths for that, as the Wraith is too fragile for it to go up against BC's or Carriers.
Yes, this is true, but Wraths are still sometimes used, especially in tandem with cloak, to deal with carriers or guardians especially.

The Scout however is a fair counter to heavy air - but they still need the speed upgrade to be usable, and High templars and Dragoons usually deal with heavy air anyways.
Okay, let's just assume you are right and it's the unit stats itself which the scout is never built. Let's say it gets buffed, I don't think it would be used still because again, people don't tend to use heavy air against protoss to begin with.

Apart from that, the carrier in BW has all the problems of the scout, you need carrier capacity for it to be useful, it takes a year and a half to build and when its out it still has to build interceptors. Yet it's used in PvT. Simply because the unit it's supposed to counter, the tank, is used a lot. In fact, the reason the carrier is used is because the scout is so terrible versus ground, if the scout packed a decent air to ground punch, people would just use the scout in lieu of the carrier to hit tanks I feel, almost any unit which flies and can hit ground suffices, of which protoss have 2, one of which is pretty bad at it.

BW was never a game of direct counters
I never got why people say this, counters in BW are so much sharper than they are in WoL. BW has hard, very hard counter. So hard that whole tech trees are basically obsolete in certain matchups because they had the counter, you will never see bionic work in TvT or TvP, tanks and storms and vults and goons are just such huge counters to it that the entire tech path is obsolete. The only units you'll ever see in a ZvZ when ZerO isn't playing are mutas, lings and the odd scourge. Because those units counter everything else so hard that it's not even funny.

Why doesn't mech work in WoL TvP? Well, obviously because the immortal counters mech about as hard as templar and reavers counter bio, which is why bio will never work in BW TvP.


and blaming the rarety of other units for why the Scout was never used is kinda silly. Instead look at its painfully slow buildtime, and its reliance on the speed upgrade to do ANYTHING usefull - and then add that it does not do anything a Corsair, Dragoon or Shuttle doesn't do better.
No matter how useful it is, unless you want to repurpose it from a capital ship hunter, because that is what it is designed for, until capital ships are going to be made against protoss scouts won't see a lot of use.

Same thing with people trying to get the carrier to be useful in WoL. Unless you make it better against marines than colossi, in which case it would be the omni unit to get against everything, carriers aren't going to be used that much. Marines are a staple of WoL TvP and they are pretty good against carriers, and they should be. As soon as carriers start to become good at marines they will basically beat everything.
WCS Apartheid cometh, all hail the casual audience, death to merit and hard work.
Zaphod Beeblebrox
Profile Joined December 2010
Denmark697 Posts
December 18 2012 14:47 GMT
#3636
Ok first off, lets examine why air play is used in the first place (focussing on Terran).
The reason mech play works versus Protoss is because in BW mech is the superior army for Terran. Mech has innate problems dealing with air play, and that is why late Proleague play started to favor Wraiths in TvT. This is also why mech is rarer in TvZ - Zerg has Mutalisks to grind down the mech army, whereas the Scout is horrible at dealing with a ground based army.
Terrans would use mech play 100% of the time vZ if the Zerg did not have Mutalisks and supirior mobility to deal with it. They use mech 99% of the time versus Protoss because Carriers are the only decent air to ground unit in this matchup, and because Protoss have less options to punish the immobile mech army. A buffed scout would make the TvP matchup more varied, as the mech army would have to be more prepared for a Goliath transition, or indeed a vZ style bio army. Templar and reavers are about as hard counters to terran bio as they are to Hydralisks. Bio is definately viable, but not nearly as stong as mech play.

Air play versus Terran focusses on the mech playstyle because bio is so good at anti air. The Scout is inferior in every way here compared to the Carrier.
Air play versus Zerg is focussed on the Scourges - that anything but Corsairs are horrible at dealing with.
Air play versus Protoss is focussed on the Dragoons, Archons and to some degree Corsairs. Guess how good Scouts are at dealing with these units.

The Scout was never designed to be a Capital ship hunter - It was designed to be an air supiriority fighter. It is never used for this because of the innately stong protoss anti air (mainly Dragoons) that is a core part of ANY Protoss army. Because it is sub par at everything else (unlike the Wraith, Corsair or Mutalisk) it does not have a role in the game.

Finally lets get one thing out of the way - BW never was a game of direct unit counters. Army counters are a different thing. Hydralisks are rarely used versus Terrans because a hydralisk based army cannot trade efficiently with Terran bio. If the Terran switches to mech, Hydralisks become much more useful. Carriers, Battlecruisers and Guardians are never used versus Zerg or Protoss because of the plentyful anti air in these matchups. These units are used versus Terran because anti air is a detriment to the main Terran army (if it is mech), and this can be exploited.
Go try StarBow on the Arcade. TL thread: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=440661
maybenexttime
Profile Blog Joined November 2006
Poland5808 Posts
December 18 2012 15:44 GMT
#3637
@SiskosGoatee

There are few examples of hard counters in BW. Mostly it's a matter of who controls his units better. Firebats can rape Zerglings, but well controlled Lings can take out Firebats, too. Same with Goons and Vultures, Tanks and Zealots, Mutas and Marines, Scourge and Mutas, and so on, and so on.

In SC2 pretty much the only such interaction is Banelings vs Marines.
SiskosGoatee
Profile Blog Joined May 2012
Albania1482 Posts
December 18 2012 20:06 GMT
#3638
On December 18 2012 23:47 Zaphod Beeblebrox wrote:
Ok first off, lets examine why air play is used in the first place (focussing on Terran).
The reason mech play works versus Protoss is because in BW mech is the superior army for Terran. Mech has innate problems dealing with air play, and that is why late Proleague play started to favor Wraiths in TvT. This is also why mech is rarer in TvZ - Zerg has Mutalisks to grind down the mech army, whereas the Scout is horrible at dealing with a ground based army.
Terrans would use mech play 100% of the time vZ if the Zerg did not have Mutalisks and supirior mobility to deal with it. They use mech 99% of the time versus Protoss because Carriers are the only decent air to ground unit in this matchup, and because Protoss have less options to punish the immobile mech army. A buffed scout would make the TvP matchup more varied, as the mech army would have to be more prepared for a Goliath transition, or indeed a vZ style bio army.
Yes, to some extend. However TvP is already accepted to be slightly P favoured, buffing a protoss unit is hardly advisable.

Templar and reavers are about as hard counters to terran bio as they are to Hydralisks. Bio is definately viable, but not nearly as stong as mech play.
Disagree, bio isn't viable at all. If it was 'definitely viable' it would be used once in a while as a surprise tactic. Hell, mech despite not being viable at all in WoL in TvP is used once in a while as surprise tactic, bio is never used. TvP in BW. If it was definitely viable and just slightly weaker t would definitely be thrown in once in a while, going bio TvP in BW is just suicide.

The Scout was never designed to be a Capital ship hunter - It was designed to be an air supiriority fighter. It is never used for this because of the innately stong protoss anti air (mainly Dragoons) that is a core part of ANY Protoss army. Because it is sub par at everything else (unlike the Wraith, Corsair or Mutalisk) it does not have a role in the game.
It is not an air superiority fighter, it loses out to the wraith, the devourer and the corsair. It is however a better choice than the corsair versus the carrier and the BC simply because of the huge armour values both ships have.

Finally lets get one thing out of the way - BW never was a game of direct unit counters. Army counters are a different thing. Hydralisks are rarely used versus Terrans because a hydralisk based army cannot trade efficiently with Terran bio. If the Terran switches to mech, Hydralisks become much more useful. Carriers, Battlecruisers and Guardians are never used versus Zerg or Protoss because of the plentyful anti air in these matchups. These units are used versus Terran because anti air is a detriment to the main Terran army (if it is mech), and this can be exploited.
Yes it's a game of direct unit counters, some units just counter other units. It's really simple. Firebats are always going to be cost efficient against zerglings unless someone majorly screws up whether you want to admit it or not. People love to deny that unit counters exist but they do and deliberately so.

On December 19 2012 00:44 maybenexttime wrote:
@SiskosGoatee

There are few examples of hard counters in BW. Mostly it's a matter of who controls his units better. Firebats can rape Zerglings, but well controlled Lings can take out Firebats, too. Same with Goons and Vultures, Tanks and Zealots, Mutas and Marines, Scourge and Mutas, and so on, and so on.

In SC2 pretty much the only such interaction is Banelings vs Marines.
There is no amount of micro you can pull of to make bio beat mech in BW, funnily enough in WoL the counterage has been toned down a bit and bio can beat mech with proper flanking and splitting. Unit counters exist in BW, and they are far far stronger than in WoL, they are so strong that entire units are never made in certain matchups thereby making you see how strong they are less.

That's not to say it doesn't still exist, lategame TvP you need arbiters, the counter to a giant mech army, without recall and stasis field it's just going to be very hard to engage a giant mech blob for Protoss, it's a counter to that army.
WCS Apartheid cometh, all hail the casual audience, death to merit and hard work.
Xiphias
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
Norway2223 Posts
December 18 2012 21:12 GMT
#3639
Not going to argue anything in this post. (I usually don't anyway....). I am rather going to announce that I am going to try some casting on my own. I would love to cast with decembercalm, but I live a busy life and we live on different sides of the planet so chances are small it will happen anytime soon.

I do feel the need for getting more games out there, since this is a great game to watch, and more people should play to get this game out of beta. So if you have any great games (reps) that decembercalm has not done (I am not competing with him, just getting more out) feel free to pm me and they might get casted.

I only have Microsoft expression encoder which only allows me to do 10 min VOD at a time. December, what do you use to get longer VODs and is that program free ? I will not (at least try not) to cast games of myself, just feels too weird.

One reason I do this is that every time I am on youtube (which is often) I always see if decembercalm has made a new VOD, and it's been so long since last time he made one, so screw it, I am going to make mine own
aka KanBan85. Working on Starbow.
Zain3
Profile Joined September 2012
Sweden45 Posts
December 18 2012 21:23 GMT
#3640
you can just use OBS streamlink.. there you can upload it to youtube directly or save it as a recording..
This is stupid!
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