EPT[G] Analysis of the Importance of Zerg Upgrades - Page 2
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PaladiN_23
84 Posts
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Theldiot
United States21 Posts
EDIT: There is a much more complete guide ->HERE<-. #1 Incorporate native armor of some units. Against roaches, attack upgrade increases zergling damage from 4 to 5, which is a 25% increase. #2 Armor upgrades do not always scale with weapon upgrades. For example, roach attack increases by 2/upgrade, so a +2 weapon roach will still 2-hit a +2 armor zergling. Same for defense: armor upgrades for roaches vs marines are very effective, while against marauders much less so. A related note: comparing 3-3 units' DPS to un-upgraded units is rather unhelpful, since you should expect you opponent to keep up with your upgrades somewhat. #3 The number of hits it takes to kill an enemy unit is more important than pure DPS for many units. For example, it doesn't matter whether a roach has 1, 2, or 3 weapon upgrade against un-upgraded zerglings. Certain key upgrade milestones can emerge: Roaches' +1 weapon vs zerglings is one, zergling +1 armor vs +1 zealots is another common one. But there are others as well: Banelings, +1 weapons allows to 4-hit kill zealots instead of 5-hit; +2 weapons allow to 1-hit kill drones and probes; +3 weapons allow to 1-hit kill stimmed marines or if they don't have shields. #4 Getting extra attack units may or may not be superior depending on the composition and numbers in both player's and opponent's armies. Upgrades costs resources - getting to 3/3 costs a LOT of gas and time. To complicate matters further, unit composition changes throughout the course of the game. Early on, armor upgrades for roaches greatly help against marines, but later on they will switch to higher tech units that will make the armor upgrades rather useless. Needless to say, there is a LOT that could be done. Furthermore, it would be impossible to look at zerg units in isolation, since it is vital what units they are up against, their upgrades, numbers, and positioning. Testing/experimentation The best way to test the impact of weapon upgrades is via the unit tester. Calculating DPS can only get you so far. For example: will 10 +1 weapon roaches win against 12 un-upgraded roaches? - probably not, since 12 roaches's DPS is the same, but they have more HitPoints and their DPS will fall slower as units die. What about 20 and 22 roaches though? Positioning becomes important as well, since if not all units can attack, upgrades become much more important (as you noted). Even micro has to be considered, since a superior force of un-upgraded units targeting upgraded units one by one will result in much better performance than auto-attacking. All this can't be analyzed without actual in-game testing. One thing is clear about upgrades: if you're planning for a late-game 200/200 army, then upgrades will definitely be useful. I applaud the effort put into this guide. There were some very important points brought up, such as the fact that limited surface area available to zerg units to attack makes attack upgrades extra important. A complete unit upgrade analysis is a much bigger project though. | ||
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