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Intro
So there I was, sitting in the bathroom, also known as the throne of knowledge and wisdom, thinking about Protoss base design. Why you ask? Hell if I know, I just was.
Essentially my thoughts were:
-Protoss players, pro and bronze often build their gateways and tech, as well as pylons in random areas, which can be inefficient when drops and air harass occur
-What can we as Protoss do to make an effective base design?
Some of you may ask "why does it care? If you expand base design is irrelevant."
Not entirely true my cute bronze (or higher) friend, when on two or more bases is when drops typically occur, this is due to the fact that there is more map to control and one's army is divided thinner the further his bases are from each other.
Drops and muta harass aren't the only reasons for a good base design, if one scouts an early all-in or heavy pressure, good design is game saving. Also, how many times have you tried to place a building down where you want to, but your previous buildings were way too randomly placed and there isn't a nice 3x3 space, and you have to look all around your base, wasting time? All the time right? Some people are better than other at not doing it, but it happens to all of this. This is why I am making this guide, and why I think this is effective. Why? Well let me show you cutie.
The Design
First of all, this is a good design (IMO) due to the fact that to wall off with a zealot, you only need the 2 starting buildings and 2 pylons for it as you normally would (the wall off with a side entrance blocked by zealot). All you need to do is rearrange the building and voila! Good to go. (Note, I messed up and didn't put the pylon opposite the other one on the inside of the wall till later, my bad. It does however leave a 1 grid opening.)
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What this design allows you to do is make a parallel walls with gates, tech, and production facilities as long as you have the room. This is also effective because of the fact that the pylons (3+) are always behind the 3x3 buildings, providing overlapping power, should the get sniped (1 pylon powers 2 buildings, 2 per 1 building.)
This looks stupid, why is this even needed?
Don't be so mean! I spent a lot of thinking on this. This is good for many reasons against zerg.
1. Lings cannot unpower buildings
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2. If zerg comes up the ramp, zealots can be the only units even in range of him, any ranged unit can be outside roach range as long as buildings live, or keeping FFs up where buildings are missing.
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3. 1 FF is enough to completely block the middle of this golden hallway. If lings run in, FF in front and behind, and get free kills. They won't be able to kill gates in time as they have only 2 grids of attack space, 4 lings per building.
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4. This allows the Robo Facility to produce units, and not have to go around other buildings, it is travel time efficient.
5. If there is muta harass, the path leads straight to the nexus, and you are able to blink on either side if needed due to only 5 grids max of buildings to blink over, most of which you can just blink over 3
6. SPACE! This allows you to make other buildings VERY VERY easily later on in the game. Run out of hallway space? Well just put them down on the other side of the pylon, and put pylons next to those as well. This is meant for a nice compact base that is easy to navigate, defend, and being able to place anything anywhere late game when you need to add additional gates or stargates.
But will it blend work? That is the question.
I have not yet had a game where I could apply this yet, but I did try it with a friend. This was not an actual game, but it did show the power of the wall. (This is why I put [D] and not [G].) I will however start to do this more than not vZ on ladder, and hopefully this will catch on.
Other thoughts
This might not work on some maps where you can't have a diagonal wall going on, some maps may allow longer walls than others.
I am a Mid-High Masters Protoss if you are wondering and are biased towards lower leagues.
EDIT: This can also work with just placing a single pylon and a single gateway, allowing for zealot block. Sot his is safe vs 14/14 and 11 overpool
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Replay
http://drop.sc/89371
again, not a real game, this was for testing it's viability in attacks. x8 through most of it until around 7.
Thanks for reading and please comment, discuss, and have fun making more zerg tears flow into the rivers of victory.
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i like it... the only issue i have is the fact that i ffe 100% of pvz... and the last few ive 1 based i failed horribly... so this is cool and all but how could i incorporate it into my ffe style? take shakuras especially for example... the ramp at the bottom is bigger and there isnt as much hallway room. i guess i could do this when taking a 6th in the other main... but thats ridiculously late in the game
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Well the point of this wasn't just for 1 base, I should've clarified. It's just base design. Say you lose your natural and have to retreat, this offers and amazing choke in which you can position yourself vs ling/roach to win no matter what, if you have the FFs for it and they are spot on. Such as with the stalker walking along the edge shooting roaches that cannot shoot back, or the FF to trap them in with zealots etc.
This can be used to open with 1 base, I usually FFE, but not on certain maps like XNC, Shattered (bad bad luck on that map  ), and the new desert one. The only reason I chose shakuras was for the build room.
Edit: another reason is space management. If you throw a bunch of cubes in a box, all jumbled, they will not all fit. But if you fit them like a puzzle, they will allow room for more.
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im going to take a look at the replay to get a better idea of how exactly you set it up... but definitely upload more. im interested as to how you incorporate this into your personal play.
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I def. will upload replays when I do incorporate this.
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Wow, this is actually pretty cool. I don't play protoss, but I would be utterly confused if I saw this building set-up. It actually makes a lot of sense now that I think about it.
The only concern that I have is placing your core so close to the cliff of the base. It seems to me that in the third screenshot, the zerg is dangerously close to sniping your core... and no one wants that, right?
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On January 11 2012 14:51 Homework wrote:
Wow, this is actually pretty cool. I don't play protoss, but I would be utterly confused if I saw this building set-up. It actually makes a lot of sense now that I think about it.
The only concern that I have is placing your core so close to the cliff of the base. It seems to me that in the third screenshot, the zerg is dangerously close to sniping your core... and no one wants that, right?
well a normal walloff would have the core as part of the wall so nothing new really here. I guess if you scout a hatch first and you're doing a 1 base build you can but it further back and put a second gate in that place.
but if you FFE you can put it w/e you want.
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True, that is the problem with a standard wall-off in the first place. Nevermind then! ^^
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I can see this working out well in the midgame. However you need 2 pylons to get a zealot wall off (you do right?), rendering this pretty useless imo.
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Why do I feel like everyone in this thread knows each other?
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On January 11 2012 14:59 Crypdos wrote:
I can see this working out well in the midgame. However you need 2 pylons to get a zealot wall off (you do right?), rendering this pretty useless imo.
Yes, this whole guide is useless now. Got em.
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On January 11 2012 15:00 Nightshade_ wrote:Show nested quote +On January 11 2012 14:59 Crypdos wrote:
I can see this working out well in the midgame. However you need 2 pylons to get a zealot wall off (you do right?), rendering this pretty useless imo. Yes, this whole guide is useless now. Got em.
I see, so what do you do against 14/14 or 11overpool openings?
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it may be different per map, I will look at different maps that won't be shakuras, as shakuras is auto-FFE.
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unlike you or that thread OP, I actually try to contribute.
EDIT: updated guide under Other thoughts
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float an overlord
snipe your cyber
run in through the gaping hole
profit
would be better if the screenshots werent from arranged games
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Hahahaha I know this isn't exactly relevant to your question. But your analogy of the toilet being a throne of knowledge and wisdom killed me. I'm going to use that phrase from now on, hopefully you never see it. 
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I will watch the replay and get back with a more intelligent and useful feedback sometimes this week. But I must say, walling isn't mandatory. It is good situationally. The downside to it is if you are being rushed early with ranged units like marines/marauders. Blink stalked can be fatal since your cyber can be easily targeted. Now as far as Pvz goes, I often wait for a 2nd gate and wall with that instead. Since its more robust and isn't much of a setback in a rare case of an attack.
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United Kingdom20322 Posts
The first pylon is more vunerable to early pools (that would arrive before zealot finish) which is a really big deal i think
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Great intro. =D As a zerg looking at this, you might be in trouble if early mutas hit your base. Chokes can be a problem before you get blink if Z can bounce between main and natural, and adding a hallway might make it even more of a headache as you're really stretching the distance stalkers must move between various points in your territory. Mutas could probably harass pretty effectively just flying back and forth across that wall. I do agree that it looks like a bitch to assault with ground units though.
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