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[D] Killing an SCV vs killing a Mule - Page 5

Forum Index > StarCraft 2 Strategy
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Mahtasooma
Profile Joined November 2010
Germany475 Posts
July 22 2013 10:56 GMT
#81
Does this take into account that we hate Mules much more than we hate scvs?
http://twitch.tv/mahtasooma
plgElwood
Profile Joined October 2010
Germany518 Posts
July 22 2013 11:23 GMT
#82
Kill the mule. Kill queens, Kill chronoboost OHHHHHHH wait. :D
The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts.
Weerwolf
Profile Joined November 2010
75 Posts
Last Edited: 2013-07-22 14:31:55
July 22 2013 14:31 GMT
#83
Long story short: Kill mules for short term economic datamage if they have more than 33% life, kill mule for long term damage if it has more than 55% life.

SCV's
39 – 45 1scv minerals per game-minute
78 – 90 2scv minerals per game-minute
102 3scv minerals per game-minute
http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft2/Resources#Mining_Rates

MULE
240/270 minerals on any mineral patch total
160/180 minerals per game-minute
http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft2/MULE

For calculation purposes, the max minerals gained will be used per minute for both the SCV and the MULE.


Mineral loss per building time
An scv gets 45 minerals p/m. 45/60 = 0,75 minerals p/s.
0,75 * 17 = 12,75 minerals lost during building time.

Total damage for SCV's
scv cost = 50.
62,75 minerals lost per scv, if saturation is 16 or less
With 3 scv’s per mineral patch the loss is (12/60)*17 = 3,4. 3,4 + 50 = 53,4 minerals

Additional damage
The big thing with killing an scv, is that you can state that all scv’s that havent been build yet lose 17 seconds of mining time as well. Lets say that the 16th scv is killed, so after recreating this, all 8 future scv’s lose 3,4 minerals mining time, so 3,4 * 8 = 27,2 minerals per minute.
If an scv is killed before 16 scv’s, every extra scv costs an additional 12,75 of mining time. So if the 12’th scv is killed, on top of the calculations done before an additional 12,75 * 4 + 3,4 * 8 = 78,2 minerals are lost if a constant scv production is upheld. However, these minerals are lost over a much longer timespan.

So for short period damage:
up and to 16 scv’s: ...62,75
After 16 csv’s: ......... 53,4
Long period damage:
12th scv dead: .........140,95
16th scv dead: ..........80,6


MULE Damage
A mule gets minerals in batches of 30. It gets 180 minerals per ingame minute, or 270 minerals during 90 seconds.
270/30= 9. 100/9 = 11,11. So about each 11,11% of a mules time, 30 minerals are mined.

This means, that if a mule has about 50% of its time left, 50/11,11 = 4,5 = 4. 4*30 = 120 minerals are mined.

So what is the breaking point that it becomes more efficiënt to kill a worker than a mule?
55,55% 150 minerals
44,44% 120 minerals
33,33% 90 minerals
22,22% 60 minerals
11,11% 30 minerals


[image loading]


[image loading]


So to conclude
Short term damage
Kill mule if 33% time left or more if low saturation
Kill mule if 22% time left or more if high saturation

Long term damage
Kill mule if 55% time left or more if low saturation
Kill mule if 33% time left or more if high saturation
eneyeseekay
Profile Joined March 2013
239 Posts
Last Edited: 2013-07-22 14:51:17
July 22 2013 14:50 GMT
#84
So basically, kill SCV's?
LardMaster
Profile Joined May 2012
United Kingdom123 Posts
July 22 2013 17:02 GMT
#85
On July 22 2013 23:50 eneyeseekay wrote:
So basically, kill SCV's?

Exactly the opposite based on the maths above. Mules are better to kill more of the time.
Juice!
Profile Joined January 2011
Belgium295 Posts
July 22 2013 17:41 GMT
#86
i mostly hold an easy answer.
IF you see the mule fall, kill the mule. IF you don't see the mule fall but you see it mining already, go for scv! (<- because for all you know, the mule only has 5sec lifetime left, so the damage you have done to it you could have killed an scv)
Second place is just a fancy term for loser
archwaykitten
Profile Joined May 2010
90 Posts
July 22 2013 17:41 GMT
#87
I always target mules. It's better to go for short term advantages in this game, and then leverage those short term advantages to get even further ahead. Yes, killing an scv does more economic damage than killing a mule if that's all you consider. But if you kill the mule, you could be creating a window of opportunity for yourself where your opponent's defenses are less developed than they could be, allowing future harassment to kill an additional five scvs (for example).

Also, if you have a single unit like a reaper or a mothership core targeting down SCVs, a good player can often just run the SCV taking damage away and end up saving it. If you force them to run the mule instead, they'll lose more income during that brief window where a single unit is running.
Weerwolf
Profile Joined November 2010
75 Posts
Last Edited: 2013-07-23 07:29:09
July 23 2013 07:28 GMT
#88
Yes, but now you know that according to the math, if a mule has less than 33% time, an scv will give more short term damage if the scv count is less or equal to 16.
m0nt
Profile Joined April 2011
Australia80 Posts
July 23 2013 07:48 GMT
#89
kill mules, having more income faster means having more production faster.

scvs lose value overtime
semi-pro CS:GO player - http://www.youtube.com/user/meNtal2p
tsango
Profile Joined July 2011
Australia214 Posts
July 23 2013 08:07 GMT
#90
You need to analyse the time value of money aspect to sc2. I would have no idea where to start generating an appropriate discount rate as to define it accurately you would have to know all of the possible 'paths' to winning the game (each mineral is contributing to the outcome) and then from this determine how many 'future' minerals are the equivilent to a mineral right now.

I suppose if you really wanted you could base assumptions around a set of standard builds and standard timings and map statistical probabilities of the win/loss outcomes. By doing this for each matchup against terran you would be able to generate an applicable discount rate for various simplistic outcomes.
These generated discount rates for different build openings should then be compared with what lets call a zero net benefit rate (the rate at which it makes no difference whether you kill the scv or the mule).
Through the comparison of the statistical discount rate (dependent on the build) and the zero net benefit rate, you could determine whether to kill the scv or the mule.

Note: It is entirely probable that upon observation of rates for a few statistical builds and the zero net benefit rate it could very quickly make obvious that killing one over the other will always be far superior - which one that is though i'm not sure (other variables such at the number of active workers and the number of command centers could also have a large impact upon the results)

With all that being said, i've always thought it best to kill scv's unless you've seen a freshly dropped mule - the average mule you come across will have half its life gone, and killing it really only costs a terran 135minerals.

source - double major in engineering and finance
If you dont like something, then that should be reason enough to try and change it
KingofGods
Profile Joined July 2010
Canada1218 Posts
Last Edited: 2013-07-23 08:14:33
July 23 2013 08:14 GMT
#91
How do you take into account when the kill comes? Obviously 270-300 minerals in a 90 second window at the beginning of the game is more important than other points in the game. You also have to take into consideration that an SCV can actually build stuff and attack so its usefulness goes beyond how many minerals it will eventually mine.
Zeweig
Profile Joined July 2011
Sweden189 Posts
July 23 2013 15:59 GMT
#92
The thing is that the math will basically say that the longer the game goes on, the better it is to kill scvs early compared to MULEs, but remember that there are more tjings to consider, such as "what will he do with the minerals?"

The math is the same if you kill 3 scvs when he has 16 workers or 6, but in %, the difference is huge. So killing a mule will not according to the income be better over a long game, but remember that he will invest these minerals in either army tech or income, which means that killing a mule will:
1. Delay an expansion
2. Delay/weaken an incoming push
3. Delay/forcing him to skip tech

The first one is obvious, the second one will force more units and less income from you, and the third will do the same.

Thats why people love sniping the mules, because on paper, scvs are better, but mules will give you early economy, which will exponentially increase its value depending on investment
Commentator for Esports Heaven, covering mainly European and Chinese events. I do observing and writing on the side.
Sephiren
Profile Joined September 2012
United States85 Posts
July 23 2013 17:32 GMT
#93
I say, if you see the mules drop, kill them.

If there are only mules, kill them.

If you don't see the mules drop and there are primarily SCVs, kill the SCVs.
nickyboy909
Profile Joined June 2011
72 Posts
Last Edited: 2013-07-23 21:13:33
July 23 2013 21:12 GMT
#94
Really interesting thread. I was thinking about this myself a little while ago. It seems that the correct choice varies according to the situation. I think a lot of times though that killing SCVs would be better because when you think about it... if you 'kill' a mule you never really kill it, just put it out of commission for a while, depending on how fresh it is. To really KILL a mule, you'd have to kill an orbital... which is unlikely to happen.

If you kill a mule, it goes away for a little while, but comes back when the energy regens. When you kill an SCV, it's gone until the terran stops making SCVs. Usually terrans will continue constant SCV production until 70 or so and won't stop until that point unless doing some sort of timing attack or something. Say you kill one SCV when the terran has 25 SCVs. He now has 24 SCVs and is building another. Let's say it comes out 17 seconds later. After 17 seconds, he has 25 SCVs again, but in reality he's still missing a worker, because had you not killed that SCV, he would have 26 SCVs at this point, so really, an SCV is still dead and not collecting. This continues until the terran stops producing workers, which can be a LONG time from then.

EDIT: also, killing an SCV forces the terran to build a new one, costing 50 minerals, where killing a mule forces nothing. He will simply drop another when he has the energy. No extra cost to him.
Penguinator
Profile Joined December 2010
United States837 Posts
July 23 2013 21:16 GMT
#95
On April 25 2010 03:01 The6357 wrote:
I swear to god there is gonna be masters degree offered for SC2 in universities in near future...


Towelie.635
BoggieMan
Profile Blog Joined August 2011
520 Posts
Last Edited: 2013-07-23 21:48:43
July 23 2013 21:46 GMT
#96
Theres also the chance that his mule would have run out very shortly after you kill it.
Also mules have more health than an scv, a banshee needs 3 shots for example.
Darkthorn
Profile Joined September 2010
Romania912 Posts
July 23 2013 22:01 GMT
#97
On July 24 2013 06:16 Penguinator wrote:
Show nested quote +
On April 25 2010 03:01 The6357 wrote:
I swear to god there is gonna be masters degree offered for SC2 in universities in near future...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7XiE_V0PZ8

Lol this is ...interesting to say the least.
MysteryMeat1
Profile Blog Joined June 2011
United States3292 Posts
July 23 2013 22:01 GMT
#98
Since i play protoss, to maximize oracle harrassment, i would go after the scvs instead of the mule unless i just saw it get called down and even then i would go for the scvs.

Explanation:

Oracle shows up in terrans mineral line, there like oh shit! got to run everything away. They take the mule and the scvs as well. In this instance you are already doing economic dmg since the mule is pulled off which is why i would go after scvs.

"Cause ya know, Style before victory." -The greatest mafia player alive
moskonia
Profile Joined January 2011
Israel1448 Posts
July 23 2013 22:38 GMT
#99
Weerwolf you're awesome!

By the way to everyone who wants to know a good way to see if the MULE is fresh or not, look at the energy left on the OC, if it is close to zero than it is still a new MULE, but if it has more than 30 than probably you should kill SCVs instead.
TehWyLD
Profile Joined July 2011
Canada18 Posts
July 23 2013 23:32 GMT
#100
I feel like even though you may not be planning on killing within the next 5 minutes, if you are killing one of the first mules to get called down, it will mess up his b/o timings a lot more than killing an SCV. It may also allow opportunities to do more damage with early pressure at a time when his defense would normally be solid, since his first couple units will be a lil late.
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