• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 04:26
CEST 10:26
KST 17:26
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
Maestros of the Game: Week 1/Play-in Preview9[ASL20] Ro24 Preview Pt2: Take-Off7[ASL20] Ro24 Preview Pt1: Runway132v2 & SC: Evo Complete: Weekend Double Feature4Team Liquid Map Contest #21 - Presented by Monster Energy9
Community News
Weekly Cups (August 25-31): Clem's Last Straw?26Weekly Cups (Aug 18-24): herO dethrones MaxPax6Maestros of The Game—$20k event w/ live finals in Paris46Weekly Cups (Aug 11-17): MaxPax triples again!15Weekly Cups (Aug 4-10): MaxPax wins a triple6
StarCraft 2
General
Speculation of future Wardii series Weekly Cups (August 25-31): Clem's Last Straw? Geoff 'iNcontroL' Robinson has passed away #1: Maru - Greatest Players of All Time Maestros of the Game: Week 1/Play-in Preview
Tourneys
Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament Maestros of The Game—$20k event w/ live finals in Paris Monday Nights Weeklies LiuLi Cup - September 2025 Tournaments 🏆 GTL Season 2 – StarCraft II Team League
Strategy
Custom Maps
External Content
Mutation # 489 Bannable Offense Mutation # 488 What Goes Around Mutation # 487 Think Fast Mutation # 486 Watch the Skies
Brood War
General
ASL20 General Discussion BW General Discussion BGH Auto Balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/ Starcraft at lower levels TvP Victoria gamers
Tourneys
[Megathread] Daily Proleagues Is there English video for group selection for ASL [ASL20] Ro24 Group F [IPSL] CSLAN Review and CSLPRO Reimagined!
Strategy
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Muta micro map competition Fighting Spirit mining rates [G] Mineral Boosting
Other Games
General Games
Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne Nintendo Switch Thread Mechabellum Teeworlds - online game
Dota 2
Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion
League of Legends
Heroes of the Storm
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Heroes of StarCraft mini-set
TL Mafia
TL Mafia Community Thread Vanilla Mini Mafia
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine Russo-Ukrainian War Thread Canadian Politics Mega-thread YouTube Thread
Fan Clubs
The Happy Fan Club!
Media & Entertainment
Anime Discussion Thread Movie Discussion! [Manga] One Piece [\m/] Heavy Metal Thread
Sports
2024 - 2026 Football Thread Formula 1 Discussion TeamLiquid Health and Fitness Initiative For 2023
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread High temperatures on bridge(s) Gtx660 graphics card replacement
TL Community
The Automated Ban List TeamLiquid Team Shirt On Sale
Blogs
A very expensive lesson on ma…
Garnet
hello world
radishsoup
Lemme tell you a thing o…
JoinTheRain
How Culture and Conflict Imp…
TrAiDoS
RTS Design in Hypercoven
a11
Evil Gacha Games and the…
ffswowsucks
INDEPENDIENTE LA CTM
XenOsky
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 757 users

[G] How to win - The ETA-Concept - Page 5

Forum Index > StarCraft 2 Strategy
Post a Reply
Prev 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Next All
Nate.F
Profile Joined April 2011
918 Posts
January 04 2012 14:44 GMT
#81
great write-up. wealth of knowledge right there.
NeWeNiyaLord
Profile Blog Joined September 2010
Norway2474 Posts
January 04 2012 14:47 GMT
#82
Ah seriously good read 6/5 stars for you my friend! thanks for taking the time for making this. This should maybe be stickied in the strategy section!
This is where we begin. Show your true self, Battosai.
kirdie
Profile Blog Joined December 2010
Germany221 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-01-04 14:47:57
January 04 2012 14:47 GMT
#83
Great guide but I think most of it is rather common sense (although I may be guilty of going 5 base vs 2 in ZvP and ZvT and then I'm angry when I lose :-)).
ComaDose
Profile Blog Joined December 2009
Canada10357 Posts
January 04 2012 15:00 GMT
#84
I made my relatively new friend read it.
Its that star sense. If you know your opponents ETA you can adjust yours to survive and capitalize.
I liked the part about the billions of possibilities.
BW pros training sc2 is like kiss making a dub step album.
Ravomat
Profile Joined September 2010
Germany422 Posts
January 04 2012 15:02 GMT
#85
On January 04 2012 22:15 AnalThermometer wrote:
I think any ETA concept needs to really be ETATI to succeed in practice, with Time and Information as equally important resources. The turtle example is kind of silly without the inclusion of the time resource for many reasons.


I don't quite agree with this. ETA is a status at a specific point in time. That means your ETA is constantly changing and time is already being taken into account.

Information is a little tricky. I'd define it as a checkpoint or trigger. When you get information sometimes you have to stop what you're currently doing and adjust to what your opponent is doing while at other times you have to change nothing at all. It depends on your build. If you play blindly you risk investing too much in the wrong department. So information is required before making an investment otherwise it's a risk.
Childplay
Profile Joined October 2011
Canada263 Posts
January 04 2012 15:05 GMT
#86
wow, thats really detailed, great guide
aiuradun
Profile Joined February 2011
Denmark115 Posts
January 04 2012 15:58 GMT
#87
wow great read this is actually a really good and somehow simple way to explain the core strategic aspect of the game to new players as well without being overly specefic with specefic siturations even though this also applies to those.

thank you for writing this :-)
ShObiT
Profile Joined September 2011
Dominican Republic39 Posts
January 04 2012 15:58 GMT
#88
Loved the read! Nice way to explain things.

Keep the good work.
The Status "Quo" Is just an attemp to stop the change and evolutions of the free minded.
Theovide
Profile Joined September 2010
Sweden914 Posts
January 04 2012 16:23 GMT
#89
Sweet post, though I had a hard time not thinking ETA as estimated time of arrival. Either way I liked the way you put things, and I think that the concept that tastosis invented (ie "when ahead get more ahead") can be kind of misleading unless you put it in the way you did. (IE not go for another base if you are a base a head, but go for getting a head in the other aspects as well, because when you are a head in all aspects you are nearly garantueed the win.)
strongandbig
Profile Blog Joined October 2010
United States4858 Posts
January 04 2012 16:45 GMT
#90
First, thanks for taking the time to write this up - I think a link to this thread may be a much better response to low level players than the standard "macro better." This thread does a lot of explaining why that's important.

Second, this reminds me a lot of the central concepts of a lot of the day9 dailies, at least the more overview-ey ones rather than the ones where he talks about a specific strategy.

Third, I think you shouldn't worry about the time aspect of strategy that some people were criticizing. Time is just a resource like minerals and gas - or rather, mineral-time and gas-time (having minerals or gas earlier is worth more, since it could be earlier econ, tech, or army). It's just another little plus to be invested in econ, tech, or army and as such is already accounted for in the guide.
"It's the torso" "only more so!"
FenneK
Profile Joined November 2010
France1231 Posts
January 04 2012 17:32 GMT
#91
such a smart way of explaining the game
good luck have batman
sAfuRos
Profile Joined March 2009
United States743 Posts
January 04 2012 17:41 GMT
#92
Your illustration to demonstrate econ advantage (toss 6 base vs terran 2) is extremely misleading for those who take your word. The picture as shown would be a clear win for the toss. Furthermore, it oversimplifies the game, as having lots of bases with no indication of time or when bases were established cannot be blanket statemented as "will have less army". There are PLENTY of times where being multiple bases up also means you have a much higher army

What has happened in the game to allow you to get so far ahead? You FE'd and defended 1 base all in and he stayed? You ninja expod quick and he didn't notice? These are the types of factors that impact such a scenario, just as you say in your graph with "Time vs Understand of why loss"
sAfuRos // twitch.tv/sAfuRos // contact for coaching
TidusX.Yuna
Profile Blog Joined July 2011
United States239 Posts
January 04 2012 17:43 GMT
#93
Wow, this is brilliant. Great write up.
Courage is the magic that turns dreams into reality!
Symbioth
Profile Joined October 2011
Poland103 Posts
January 04 2012 17:44 GMT
#94
This is basicly the best guide on TL.net I have read. Well written, very concise, coherent, concrete, useful and accurate at the same time.
Grumbels
Profile Blog Joined May 2009
Netherlands7031 Posts
January 04 2012 17:52 GMT
#95
When thinking about build orders, I feel like mechanics and micro can simply be abstracted or put into the army category. That is to say, if you have excellent micro your army strength is just higher. I think technology too can be put into 'army'. Now you only have two factors to keep in mind: do I spend on something that will help later, or help now.

I think a good approach for creating a generic game plan is to know how your investments will pay off in comparison to your opponent's investments. For instance, investing a lot into economy when your opponent is hardly doing so will be pointless, as you only have to get slightly better economy to gain an advantage. You might have the potential of getting a great advantage, but as you only need a little one, and the game is supposed to be balanced, you can almost count on this being the wrong decision.

If you build a lot of army and your opponent can counter it with almost as much army, but a little bit more economy, you have usually made the wrong decision. This is because economy gives you benefits later on, so it will usually be the case you can have more army than your opponent if from that point on both of you keep investing into army. Maybe your opponent would have been better off simply investing everything into army, nothing into economy, so that with your more 'balanced' approach, you would lose out.
This is a bit of a generic way of thinking about RTS games though. I feel like the only match-up where this really plays out this way is ZvZ and PvP, both match-ups with little defender's advantage. A race like terran can so easily defend a lot of attacks that investing into army is virtually pointless. Unless you use your army investment to secure more economy and prevent third bases. But this is already too specifically about Starcraft 2, not a generic RTS, so the abstraction stops working as well, I feel.

One should consider army investment though. Usually mind games are a lot about: "if I invest a bit more into long-term, I can still hold off his army and gain an advantage later on". And your opponent will think the same, unless he decides to be tricky and make assumptions about his enemy's choices and decides to all-in or go for even more pure economy/tech. But how well this works depends on scouting, on race specifics, and the dynamics of it change wildly with different races/strategies. It's a good perspective to keep in mind though.
Well, now I tell you, I never seen good come o' goodness yet. Him as strikes first is my fancy; dead men don't bite; them's my views--amen, so be it.
palanq
Profile Blog Joined December 2004
United States761 Posts
January 04 2012 19:00 GMT
#96
I've explained SC to friends before using the ETA concept; it's quite nice. You can define a lot of the common vocabulary people use to describe SC using it. The ETA allocation space can be viewed as a triangle (or 2-simplex) where at every point in the game you're choosing where to put your money (there are some restrictions on how you can move around inside the triangle there too but we can ignore those). So you could make a cool figure out of those.

Your choice of ETA allocation forms the basis of your strategy. Everything else you do (micro, positioning, expansion placement, even general macro smoothness) can be classified as tactics. Scouting is important so you can pick the right strategy; mechanics are important so you can execute tactics properly.

For the economy vs. army+tech axis, these are "greedy," "safe," and "aggressive." Greedy play emphasizes economy, perhaps even to a fault. Aggressive play (sometimes "cheese") can be low-tech or high-tech aggression, but has very little economy focus and is designed to kill plays that are too greedy. Safe play is somewhere in the middle of the space. All such designations are relative to your opponent; opening forge-nexus PvZ is safe vs. 13pool, but greedy vs. 9pool; doing a 3gate expand is typically a very safe or aggressive build, but against a 1 gas protoss PvP it might be rather greedy.

For the tech vs. no tech axis, the interactions are complex and don't have any real rules to generalize from; tech can generally substitute for army in some situations (if all you have is bio vs. a templar-heavy army, maybe all you need is more bio, not ghost/EMP), and in others you need some lower tech thing to fend of other tech aggression (e.g. detection).

(two axes in the 2-simplex should span the space of possible income allocations :p)
time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana
acrimoneyius
Profile Blog Joined June 2010
United States983 Posts
January 04 2012 19:50 GMT
#97
Very cool thread, I will show this to my newbie friends who are just learning the game.
tehemperorer
Profile Blog Joined June 2010
United States2183 Posts
January 04 2012 21:09 GMT
#98
Great guide, I love hearing from GM players... I can use this because it makes clear things that I did think about but wasn't sure, didn't think about and never knew, all in a concise manner (even came with a mnemonic!)
Knowing is half the battle... the other half is lasers.
Draconicfire
Profile Joined May 2010
Canada2562 Posts
January 04 2012 21:13 GMT
#99
Great guide. I've been having issues lately where I just straight up lose since my econ is too good and my army is too bad. Will probably start to use an ETA system to figure out when I should be focusing more on army.
@Drayxs | Drayxs.221 | Drayxs#1802
ApocAlypsE007
Profile Blog Joined January 2011
Israel1007 Posts
January 04 2012 22:13 GMT
#100
Felo I have a question. Maybe the answer is obvious but I still would like to hear your opinion. What is your reaction if the ETA meter of your enemy looks something like this:
E+++
T+++++++
A+++?
Like a Terran who goes heavy with Banshees and BFH?
I'm playing the game, the one that will take me to my end, i'm waiting for the rain, TO WASH-- WHO I AM!!!
Prev 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Next All
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
Next event in 2h 34m
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
ProTech70
StarCraft: Brood War
Calm 10010
actioN 676
Tasteless 487
Mind 277
ggaemo 180
PianO 116
sSak 113
Pusan 98
Soma 76
ZerO 76
[ Show more ]
Leta 71
Sharp 63
Aegong 34
soO 31
Sacsri 20
yabsab 14
HiyA 13
Bale 10
Dota 2
BananaSlamJamma172
XcaliburYe82
Counter-Strike
shoxiejesuss595
olofmeister484
Other Games
summit1g6057
ceh9342
Happy122
OGKoka 74
ZerO(Twitch)8
Organizations
Other Games
gamesdonequick581
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
sctven
[ Show 13 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• LUISG 16
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• LaughNgamezSOOP
• Migwel
• sooper7s
StarCraft: Brood War
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
League of Legends
• Jankos327
• HappyZerGling65
Upcoming Events
LiuLi Cup
2h 34m
Replay Cast
15h 34m
The PondCast
1d 1h
RSL Revival
1d 1h
Maru vs SHIN
MaNa vs MaxPax
Maestros of the Game
1d 8h
Classic vs TriGGeR
Reynor vs SHIN
OSC
1d 18h
MaNa vs SHIN
SKillous vs ShoWTimE
Bunny vs TBD
Cham vs TBD
RSL Revival
2 days
Reynor vs Astrea
Classic vs sOs
Maestros of the Game
2 days
Serral vs Ryung
ByuN vs Zoun
BSL Team Wars
2 days
Team Bonyth vs Team Dewalt
CranKy Ducklings
3 days
[ Show More ]
RSL Revival
3 days
GuMiho vs Cham
ByuN vs TriGGeR
Cosmonarchy
3 days
TriGGeR vs YoungYakov
YoungYakov vs HonMonO
HonMonO vs TriGGeR
Maestros of the Game
3 days
Solar vs Bunny
Clem vs Rogue
[BSL 2025] Weekly
3 days
RSL Revival
4 days
Cure vs Bunny
Creator vs Zoun
Maestros of the Game
4 days
Maru vs Lambo
herO vs ShoWTimE
BSL Team Wars
4 days
Team Hawk vs Team Sziky
Sparkling Tuna Cup
5 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

CSL Season 18: Qualifier 2
SEL Season 2 Championship
HCC Europe

Ongoing

Copa Latinoamericana 4
BSL 20 Team Wars
KCM Race Survival 2025 Season 3
BSL 21 Qualifiers
ASL Season 20
CSL 2025 AUTUMN (S18)
Maestros of the Game
Sisters' Call Cup
BLAST Open Fall Qual
Esports World Cup 2025
BLAST Bounty Fall 2025
BLAST Bounty Fall Qual
IEM Cologne 2025
FISSURE Playground #1
BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025

Upcoming

LASL Season 20
2025 Chongqing Offline CUP
BSL Season 21
BSL 21 Team A
Chzzk MurlocKing SC1 vs SC2 Cup #2
RSL Revival: Season 2
EC S1
BLAST Rivals Fall 2025
Skyesports Masters 2025
IEM Chengdu 2025
PGL Masters Bucharest 2025
Thunderpick World Champ.
MESA Nomadic Masters Fall
CS Asia Championships 2025
ESL Pro League S22
StarSeries Fall 2025
FISSURE Playground #2
BLAST Open Fall 2025
TLPD

1. ByuN
2. TY
3. Dark
4. Solar
5. Stats
6. Nerchio
7. sOs
8. soO
9. INnoVation
10. Elazer
1. Rain
2. Flash
3. EffOrt
4. Last
5. Bisu
6. Soulkey
7. Mini
8. Sharp
Sidebar Settings...

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2025 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.