If zerg had a building that did this, I'd be using them constantly I'm not sure why players are afraid to get them. Sure in the early and mid game it's not worth it, but once you are maxed and have floating resources I think it would be a damn good investment and gives you map control.

Malhavoc

Italy308 Posts

November 29 2010 09:51 GMT

#82

I find sensor towers useful also in TvT as an offensive tool when you are containing your opponent. When you contain them with siege tanks and such, he usually tries to go for a drop in your base. If you plant 1-2 towers you can see his medievac going out and easily intercept it as he leaves his base. This way you don't need to keep some units in your base just in case of a drop.

yarkO

Canada810 Posts

November 29 2010 09:59 GMT

#83

As Protoss, I really hate when I see that big circle appear on the map. I feel like I have no real way to deal with the tower itself, and positioning my army offensively becomes a much bigger hassle. I always feel cornered off when the Terran throws down a Sensor Tower or 2, since there is no way I can surprise his army.

Maybe vs other races, it's not as good. In TvP, they are quite strong.

FirstQT

United States115 Posts

November 29 2010 10:02 GMT

#84

people just forget its in the game.

ZDuke

Australia6 Posts

November 29 2010 10:14 GMT

#85

I think to see how effective sensor towers are you have to think about how you play against an oppoent that has them.

ie. If you are going drop play and you opponent puts up a sensor tower, do you drop in a place where they will see it coming? or look for an other opportunity?

The fact that you opponent can see its range is something you can use to your advantage, in one game I played (TvT on Lost temple) I scanned my oppoent to see a couple of medivacs, so threw up a tower which covered all of my base except the back corner, of corse thats where he tried to drop, and my vikings were ready.
I didn't have to try and cover the whole base because i had a pretty good idea where the drop would come from.

Towers can be very useful at "funneling" enemy forces.

The reason imo that they are more common in TvT is that other races generally use drop less often.

I definatly agree that early game 100gas is much better spent on a fact, starport, addons, tank, etc. but that doesn't mean that you shouldn't build them.

CHOChi

Germany73 Posts

November 29 2010 11:03 GMT

#86

i think they're only really great in tvt when you decide to give up the air dominance. since you just can scan as he tries to move further

Dante08

Singapore4126 Posts

November 29 2010 11:19 GMT

#87

I seriously think its because people are too busy macroing or doing other stuff that they forget to use sensor towers. And to people who are saying sensor towers are too expensive, c'mon, 125/100 to spot your opponents enemy or drop is soooo worth it.

Tonyoh

France218 Posts

November 30 2010 21:51 GMT

#88

I think the main problem is that they can be easily broken...
So it still have a use, but it's obviously for late game, if you reacher 200/200 or not far from it. (because having the main destroyed for a terran means gg, very usefull to prevent drop or void/muta)

Geovu

Estonia1344 Posts

November 30 2010 22:32 GMT

#89

Sensor Towers covering my opponent's base = my DTs and warp prisms feeling sad

Klishu

Malta83 Posts

November 30 2010 23:00 GMT

#90

I think Sensor Towers are useful for when you want to scout an area which it is difficult to physically get a unit to. In the last Dreamhack, one of the players used Sensor Towers at his contain beside his siege tanks.

ScythedBlade

308 Posts

December 01 2010 00:12 GMT

#91

Sensor towers are mainly a nice usage if you have a very immobile army. Usually if you're coupled with thors and tanks, it's useful. Otherwise, with MMM balls, it's not so needed.

Also, sensor towers always tell your opponent their location, so they can just easily go in really fast (if they can of course) and snipe it ... which means you lose a very important 100 gas. Most terrans have gas cheap units (compared to Protoss), so you can imagine what those gas could've been better used for.

SoftSoap

United States170 Posts

December 01 2010 03:50 GMT

#92

On November 28 2010 00:28 Saechiis wrote:
Building sensor towers is like morphing all your bases into Planetary Fortresses. Sure, you can do it, and yes it will make defending your mineral lines easier. But most people would rather invest that money into a banshee that can be used for agression AND spotting AND overall army strength.

Sensor towers are also easily killed and your opponent is completely aware of it's existence and it's span once it goes up. It doesn't detect invisible units and it doesn't detect what units it detects. In short, most of the sensor towers' use can be substituted by good scouting, Xel'Naga Tower possesion and intelligent building placement.

Well put, I agree

telfire

United States415 Posts

December 01 2010 06:21 GMT

#93

Two reasons: because most Terrans all-in and never get to a point where they would build one, and because people are dumb. Every other excuse is a copout IMO. You can argue all day about how precious those minerals and gas are to you, but really, the amount is meaningless in the mid game. You will NOT lose the game because you have 125/100 less worth of units in a game that goes over 10 minutes. You WILL lose the game because you get taken by surprise.

If Zerg had this unit I would build one or two every game. It would be completely invaluable and not making one would be really really dumb. Terran isn't Zerg, and the unit has a different place than it would, but still. It's very good, and the people complaining about how expensive it is are probably part of the reason there's absolutely no one in the world that is any good at Terran Macro games.

Psiven

United States148 Posts

December 01 2010 06:26 GMT

#94

I see sensor towers all the time (PvT), certainly more often than I see battlecruisers, carriers etc. in competitive play. They're fairly common in tournaments too as far as I can tell. I would venture that the perceived rarity is just because they're more common in PvT (a rare matchup for the GSL), aren't particularly memorable when used, and occur mostly in long games with more interesting things happening.

DiracMonopole

United States1555 Posts

December 01 2010 06:29 GMT

#95

I think sensor towers are definitely underused, but I think one reason people dont like to use them is how vulnerable they are. Even if you manage to ward off the drop in your mineral line, the tower is on the edge of your base, and its basically impossible to stop it from dying to drops on the edge, banshees, void rays or mutas.

SCdinner

Canada516 Posts

December 01 2010 06:44 GMT

#96

For me personally I hate that the oppenent knows instantly where they are with the circle they display on the mini map. I'd rather trick them into showing there drop with scouting and intercept their dropship than have them not venture out because fo the sensor tower.