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[G] Seizing Every Edge: Zerg Economy Management - Page 2

Forum Index > StarCraft 2 Strategy
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SangSoul
Profile Joined July 2011
Thailand3 Posts
July 12 2012 22:40 GMT
#21
Great guide Tang!!
Orek
Profile Joined February 2012
1665 Posts
July 12 2012 23:23 GMT
#22
Nice guide.
After reading this, I wonder how broodwar pros check their worker numbers. When 12 is the maximum number of workers you can select at a time, do they select twice and add or just look at the mineral line?
quarkral
Profile Joined July 2012
58 Posts
July 12 2012 23:54 GMT
#23
You lose mining time when transferring drones. There's also the fact that you need drones to build buildings, so you can just pick drones from the base that's the most oversaturated, which prevents lost mining time due to transferring. I don't think you're taking these two factors into consideration in your hunt for "optimality."
monkxly
Profile Blog Joined January 2009
Canada241 Posts
July 12 2012 23:56 GMT
#24
great guide!
get a spire
TangSC
Profile Blog Joined July 2011
Canada1866 Posts
July 12 2012 23:57 GMT
#25
On July 13 2012 08:54 quarkral wrote:
You lose mining time when transferring drones. There's also the fact that you need drones to build buildings, so you can just pick drones from the base that's the most oversaturated, which prevents lost mining time due to transferring. I don't think you're taking these two factors into consideration in your hunt for "optimality."

You're right about losing mining time when you transfer drones, though I do think it's best to transfer drones over 16. I do make a few suggestions about how to maintain optimal saturation when constructing buildings, such as choosing drones from a base that is over-saturated or constructing new drones and rallying.
Coaching www.allin-academy.com | Team www.All-Inspiration.com
Maytsh
Profile Joined July 2012
Germany2 Posts
July 13 2012 00:01 GMT
#26
On July 13 2012 06:39 Danglars wrote:
I don't care if your mining rate with the third drone is 5 minerals per minute less than the first two.


It's not 5 minerals less per minute for the new drone, it's 5 minerals per minute for all drones. The statistic is a bit misleading. So taking OP's numbers - if 16 drones mine 670 minerals and 20 drones mine 750, this means that the four last drones only contributed 17 minerals per minute - which means that each of the first 16 drones is almost three times more useful than the 17th one upwards.

Or put another way - while the first 16 drones collect back their cost in roughly 70 seconds, the 17th drone upwards takes a whopping 3 minutes to do the same thing. It's a pretty safe bet that you'd have more useful things to invest in if that's your window.

I think there's a pretty good reason for calling anything past 16 drones oversaturated.
quarkral
Profile Joined July 2012
58 Posts
July 13 2012 00:23 GMT
#27
On July 13 2012 08:57 TangSC wrote:
Show nested quote +
On July 13 2012 08:54 quarkral wrote:
You lose mining time when transferring drones. There's also the fact that you need drones to build buildings, so you can just pick drones from the base that's the most oversaturated, which prevents lost mining time due to transferring. I don't think you're taking these two factors into consideration in your hunt for "optimality."

You're right about losing mining time when you transfer drones, though I do think it's best to transfer drones over 16. I do make a few suggestions about how to maintain optimal saturation when constructing buildings, such as choosing drones from a base that is over-saturated or constructing new drones and rallying.


My point is that deliberately oversaturating certain bases (in most cases, your main) preemptively in preparation for constructing buildings there may be better.

The suggestions you gave only apply afterwards.
TangSC
Profile Blog Joined July 2011
Canada1866 Posts
July 13 2012 00:29 GMT
#28
On July 13 2012 09:23 quarkral wrote:
Show nested quote +
On July 13 2012 08:57 TangSC wrote:
On July 13 2012 08:54 quarkral wrote:
You lose mining time when transferring drones. There's also the fact that you need drones to build buildings, so you can just pick drones from the base that's the most oversaturated, which prevents lost mining time due to transferring. I don't think you're taking these two factors into consideration in your hunt for "optimality."

You're right about losing mining time when you transfer drones, though I do think it's best to transfer drones over 16. I do make a few suggestions about how to maintain optimal saturation when constructing buildings, such as choosing drones from a base that is over-saturated or constructing new drones and rallying.


My point is that deliberately oversaturating certain bases (in most cases, your main) preemptively in preparation for constructing buildings there may be better.

The suggestions you gave only apply afterwards.

If you know you're going to build 2 structures in the main early on, I suppose you could oversaturate the base by 2 drones so that you don't have to transfer from natural. It would depend how long they're triple mining in the main for.
Coaching www.allin-academy.com | Team www.All-Inspiration.com
Staboteur
Profile Blog Joined February 2011
Canada1873 Posts
July 13 2012 00:30 GMT
#29
For the sake of lower level players such as myself, I can only imagine that achieving and maintaining an optimal saturation are the only aspects of any practical use, as the biggest problem for many lower level players isn't so much having not enough minerals as too much of them. Though you could obviously further optimize things by preventing bouncing drones, building drones from the larva closer to the actual undersaturated base or doubling up the closer patches earlier... unless it achieves a consistent result that is necessary for your build, I can only see it resulting in me floating 1500 minerals in the midgame instead of 1000, which doesn't actually help me win games.

I can't see managing the finer points of economy being any practical use of APM for anyone below high masters. Am I wrong in this?

THAT SAID I'm glad you bother to make such guides, man! Very well laid out and informative, and no-one can be hurt by accurate information! :D
I'm actually Fleetfeet D:
TangSC
Profile Blog Joined July 2011
Canada1866 Posts
July 13 2012 00:34 GMT
#30
On July 13 2012 09:30 Staboteur wrote:
I can't see managing the finer points of economy being any practical use of APM for anyone below high masters. Am I wrong in this?

If you mean in the mid-late game, then you're right - of course a bronze/silver level player should be focusing on their macro/engagements 100%. But that doesn't mean they shouldn't practice refinement in the early stages! It's also something I think Platinum/Diamond players can keep an eye on in the midgame if their macro is in check and they feel comfortable doing so.
Coaching www.allin-academy.com | Team www.All-Inspiration.com
Hanako
Profile Joined January 2011
United Kingdom57 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-07-13 00:37:58
July 13 2012 00:36 GMT
#31
Would've been great to demonstrate the 4-base max-out thing with the use of camera hotkeys, especially in a tutorial focusing on improving your mechanics combining the training of economy management in addition to efficient movements around the map would've been better I think.
TangSC
Profile Blog Joined July 2011
Canada1866 Posts
July 13 2012 00:39 GMT
#32
On July 13 2012 09:36 Hanako wrote:
Would've been great to demonstrate the 4-base max-out thing with the use of camera hotkeys, especially in a tutorial focusing on improving your mechanics combining the training of economy management in addition to efficient movements around the map would've been ebtter I think.

I actually don't use camera hotkeys very much, I understand their appeal but tried them and didn't like it. I do hotkey my queens to 5-9, so I can go to each hatchery quickly.
Coaching www.allin-academy.com | Team www.All-Inspiration.com
TangSC
Profile Blog Joined July 2011
Canada1866 Posts
July 13 2012 02:40 GMT
#33
On July 13 2012 06:33 BoggieMan wrote:
the title is kinda missleading since alot of this can be used by all races, great advice for the players that don't know all this already.

I may actually do Terran/Protoss versions sometime down the road.
Coaching www.allin-academy.com | Team www.All-Inspiration.com
Scurvy
Profile Joined March 2012
United States117 Posts
July 13 2012 02:57 GMT
#34
Fantastic guide. It's guides like these that inspire me to practice, which I appreciate.
With it or on it.
9-BiT
Profile Blog Joined January 2012
United States1089 Posts
July 13 2012 03:20 GMT
#35
Yeah, I would definitely put this as all races guide, almost all of it is applicable to p and t.
kwark_uk: @father_sc learn to play maybe?
gilligan156
Profile Joined November 2010
United States60 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-07-13 04:31:17
July 13 2012 04:03 GMT
#36
Tang, this guide is awesome. Thanks so much for this.

Someone recently showed me your "the big bust" guide, and it's helped my ZvT a lot. I'm gold pushing for plat; this is helpful. Thanks! :D

edit: It occurred to me that my entire life I was under the presumption that 3 workers per mineral patch was the ideal number. I feel like my entire life has been a lie.

edit edit: Oh I get it now after reading comments. 16 drones, 2 per patch, is where you hit the wall of diminishing returns. Yeah, you will make more money with 3 on each patch, but you're better off with 16 on one base and 16 on the other, than 24 on one(2 per patch) and 12 on the other(the rest). Or whatever. Maximum of 16 per base until you have greater than 16x the number of bases you have. AH. This makes sense. You still make more money, up to saturation, but between 16-24 the return per drone is much less. Aha.

Thanks Tang.
leo23
Profile Blog Joined November 2010
United States3075 Posts
July 13 2012 04:26 GMT
#37
Excellent. 10/10
banelings
Xapti
Profile Joined April 2010
Canada2473 Posts
July 13 2012 04:44 GMT
#38
This is a bit off-topic, but it's still related to zerg economy:
You know what I find annoying? The quite large discrepancy that exists between economy in some maps (with same mineral field counts). I don't know if this happens with other races aside from zerg (I would think it does, maybe not to the same degree), but I've noticed around a 5-7 second difference on different maps when building an overlord and pool.

Xel'naga caverns gives the fastest economy I've seen (be it top position or bottom — although top is maybe 1 second less), while many other maps are significantly slower such as daybreak — even if the minerals are mined optimally.

I find this to be most annoying as a zerg, since many builds early on require strict timings, and 7 seconds (or more if you also don't mine optimally) can really make significant holes in builds such as losing larvas. The best example I can think of is 11 overpool build, where the difference in economy can be between losing most of a larva and virtually no fraction of a larva.
"Then he told me to tell you that he wouldn't piss on you if you were on fire" — "Well, you tell him that I said that I wouldn't piss on him if he was on Jeopardy!"
BriMikon
Profile Joined November 2010
United States82 Posts
July 13 2012 04:56 GMT
#39
Thank you for your great wealth of information Tang. I am interested on you viewpoint toward which is the best queen inject method. I use the backspace method, though i switch the base camera hotkey to spacebar, and it has worked wonders for me. Do some of the korean bawss' like Nestea use something like individual queens on 5,6 and 7 because it has strategic advantage or maybe stuck in BW ways?
Thanks again for your time.
"...if joyful is the fountain that rises in the sun, its springs are in the wells of sorrow unfathomed at the foundations of the Earth." -Tolkien
Xelyxiz
Profile Joined September 2010
United Kingdom16 Posts
July 13 2012 05:20 GMT
#40
excellent guide, every zerg must know this
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