Micro Tactic: Concave Blinking - Page 4

kHaza

Great Britain55 Posts

July 20 2011 12:23 GMT

#61

I can actually see this being very useful against Baneling bombs in PvZ. This could also be used by the other races, like for banelings in TvZ to prevent them from clumping and all dying to one tank shot, so some experimenting should be done by all right now!

Not a glitch though. You don't have to use the minimap you can just click further behind the army, although using the minimap obviously allows you to blink as far behind the army as possible. The way blink works is that the stalkers will blink to as close to the location as you specified so when the location you want them to blink to is fairly close each individual stalker will try and blink to sit on that location and you will get clumping.

Great find, nice video.

Psyqo

United States401 Posts

July 20 2011 12:35 GMT

#62

Very cool, good find.

DisaFear

Australia4074 Posts

July 20 2011 12:56 GMT

#63

Thanks for that, good find

SheffiTB

Canada223 Posts

July 20 2011 12:59 GMT

#64

Guys, the concave blinking doesn't work because you're using the minimap. There is a certain maximum range that the blink can move the stalkers. If you click somewhere closer than max range, the stalkers will clump up, but if you click further away (even on the main screen) they will retain their shape. It's the distance away from the stalkers that you click at that matters, and since he is using the minimap, the distance is obviously larger than the max blink distance. Try it; make a game vs AI on an open map, make some blink stalkers, arrange them in a concave, then use the mainscreen to blink the stalkers, while making sure you are telling them to blink as far away as possible. They will retain their concave. Using the minimap is just more convenient.

Anachromy

United States194 Posts

July 20 2011 13:04 GMT

#65

On July 20 2011 21:59 SheffiTB wrote:
Guys, the concave blinking doesn't work because you're using the minimap. There is a certain maximum range that the blink can move the stalkers. If you click somewhere closer than max range, the stalkers will clump up, but if you click further away (even on the main screen) they will retain their shape. It's the distance away from the stalkers that you click at that matters, and since he is using the minimap, the distance is obviously larger than the max blink distance. Try it; make a game vs AI on an open map, make some blink stalkers, arrange them in a concave, then use the mainscreen to blink the stalkers, while making sure you are telling them to blink as far away as possible. They will retain their concave. Using the minimap is just more convenient.

This is a great point, I'm going to add this to the OP if you don't mind Sheffi. Thanks for your insight man

SheffiTB

Canada223 Posts

July 20 2011 13:05 GMT

#66

On July 20 2011 22:04 Anachromy wrote:

Show nested quote +

This is a great point, I'm going to add this to the OP if you don't mind Sheffi. Thanks for your insight man

No problem, I was just brainstorming to think why it would work when it hit me. I tried it in a match vs AI and it worked.

marvellosity

United Kingdom36161 Posts

July 20 2011 13:09 GMT

#67

On July 20 2011 21:23 kHaza wrote:
I can actually see this being very useful against Baneling bombs in PvZ. This could also be used by the other races, like for banelings in TvZ to prevent them from clumping and all dying to one tank shot, so some experimenting should be done by all right now!

Oh wow, this one :D

So often I have a fairly nice concave at the start of battle but when I blink back they all clump horribly. This could be really useful!

EliteReplay

Dominican Republic913 Posts

July 20 2011 13:10 GMT

#68

interesting find, i think we are reaching the point, where we need this kind of things to be better players.
like in bw.

gillon

Sweden1578 Posts

July 20 2011 13:13 GMT

#69

I'm pretty sure this works with most things, such as simply a-moving. This being because the units wan't to converge on the very point you click on. The farther away the point is, the more time it takes for them to clump together to converge. This is why you see the stalkers remain in the concave.

If he blinks on top of the tanks, all the stalker want to get AS CLOSE to that specific point as possible, so you'll end up with clumping, because that's what you told your units to do!

EDIT: The problem you would encounter with a-moving in some cases is if you click on a spot that doesn't have clear field all the way to it. The pathing is then going to realize all the ramps/chokes it would have to go through and still screw up the formation. Since blink ignores these things, it works better, but I'm sure there would still be applications if you just think before using it with other commands.

FeyFey

Germany10114 Posts

July 20 2011 13:14 GMT

#70

shouldn't work with banelings because of the path finding :3 . though no one keeps the zerg from using the known spreading mechanics on the banelings. Interesting really logical and quiet helpful in some positions with that blink though

Rorschach

United States623 Posts

July 20 2011 13:20 GMT

#71

This could be huge in the high templar vs ghost micro. You should be able to have high temps on a separate ctrl group and keep them spread out even while a-moving (they usually clump into a nice little area for one EMP to hit them once you give a move command then you have to spread them again).

oPPRoBe

United States199 Posts

July 20 2011 13:30 GMT

#72

Think of the movement of the units as a bunch of arrays. If the destination of the army approaches a point "infinitely" far away, the arrays for each unit become increasingly parallel to each other. Therefore, whenever you click as far away as possible on the minimap relevant to your current army position, they will maintain their current formation for a longer amount of time until they near the destination (this also works with attack-move if I'm not mistaken). It seems this is a completely different mechanic than "magic box."

gillon

Sweden1578 Posts

July 20 2011 13:30 GMT

#73

On July 20 2011 22:20 Rorschach wrote:
This could be huge in the high templar vs ghost micro. You should be able to have high temps on a separate ctrl group and keep them spread out even while a-moving (they usually clump into a nice little area for one EMP to hit them once you give a move command then you have to spread them again).

Same when slowpushing marine tank versus infestors and stuff.

Zarahtra

Iceland4053 Posts

July 20 2011 13:32 GMT

#74

On July 20 2011 22:13 gillon wrote:
EDIT: The problem you would encounter with a-moving in some cases is if you click on a spot that doesn't have clear field all the way to it. The pathing is then going to realize all the ramps/chokes it would have to go through and still screw up the formation. Since blink ignores these things, it works better, but I'm sure there would still be applications if you just think before using it with other commands.

This is indeed why I think we've not seen this used *that much*. I read this on TL quite some time ago(like a half a year by now), where you could spread stuff out and just click far away to keep formations. Cliffs, ramps etc have prevented this from being used much, atleast why I've not really bothered(since I need to re-spread out pretty frequently anyway).

That thread(been searching for it, no luck -.-) however didn't speak of blink, which obviously cirumvents this issue for the most part, making this usage for stalkers probably pretty insanely good.

quaffle

United States249 Posts

July 20 2011 13:35 GMT

#75

Ahh! Ive totally blinked using the minimap, but never really cared to see the results of my blink. You have done a great service for Aiur! :D

Anachromy

United States194 Posts

July 20 2011 14:14 GMT

#76

On July 20 2011 22:32 Zarahtra wrote:
This is indeed why I think we've not seen this used *that much*. I read this on TL quite some time ago(like a half a year by now), where you could spread stuff out and just click far away to keep formations. Cliffs, ramps etc have prevented this from being used much, atleast why I've not really bothered(since I need to re-spread out pretty frequently anyway).

That thread(been searching for it, no luck -.-) however didn't speak of blink, which obviously cirumvents this issue for the most part, making this usage for stalkers probably pretty insanely good.

I guess only time will tell how much this tactic will effect current play. my gut is telling me minimal at best, but it at least adds some more utility to stalkers.

gillon

Sweden1578 Posts

July 20 2011 14:18 GMT

#77

On July 20 2011 23:14 Anachromy wrote:

Show nested quote +

I guess only time will tell how much this tactic will effect current play. my gut is telling me minimal at best, but it at least adds some more utility to stalkers.

When it comes to blink, it worked great, it's with the other commands that it's a bit more iffy.