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[D] Visual Cues and Buildings under Construction

Forum Index > StarCraft 2 Strategy
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pdc
Profile Blog Joined November 2010
23 Posts
December 18 2012 12:00 GMT
#1
You just scouted your Protoss opponent very early. And you see the following.

[image loading]

Do you know what that building is?

The following post includes information on the visual differences that are present in some buildings under construction that can give away its identity, such as in the image above.

Protoss

+ Show Spoiler +

Let's start with the example I used before. Here is a picture of an early Protoss structure. Can you tell if it is a gateway or a forge?

[image loading]

If we compare a forge and a gateway side by side, we can see why forges are easy to spot at a glance. Forges have a lower health bar.

[image loading]

The reason the health bars are placed at different heights is due to the size of the building being constructed. The completed forge is the smallest 3x3 Protoss structure, so its health bar is close to the ground, while a gateway is one of the largest 3x3 Protoss structures.

Also note that while the health bars are at different heights, the position of the warping blue ball remains constant. Notice how the health bar of the forge cuts across the top of the of the blue ball, while the health bar of the gateway rests slightly above.

This idea of health bar height is much clearer if we compare the 2x2 Protoss structures.

Which of the following is a dark shrine?

[image loading]

Dark shrines are particularly noticeable for another reason. While being a 2x2 building, the warp animation is quite different from the pylon and cannon. The dark shrine takes 100 seconds to build. From around seconds 17-95 the dark shrine will remain in the "ball of water" phase, which looks like this

[image loading]

[image loading]

Both a cannon and pylon go through the same process, just at an accelerated rate. All 3 structures take 17 seconds to get to the "ball of water" phase, and at 5 seconds before structure completion, the building will start to shimmer into its final form. So for a pylon, only from seconds 17 - 20 does it look like a dark shrine. For a cannon, its a little longer, seconds 17 - 35. So while you can easily click on a dark shrine to confirm its identity, by just seeing a 2x2 protoss structure warping in for a few seconds, you can easily determine what it is by the speed with which it completes, or more easily, by the height of its health bar.

The final piece of useful information comes with regards to the Protoss tech choices. There are minor differences in the height of the health bars for the Robo, Council and Stargate.

[image loading]

What is far more telling is that the stargate has a distinctive shadow underneath it. This is something that is unique to the stargate and the pylon.

For completeness, here is an image of all protoss structures in a general ordering of height of health bars. Note how the forge and robo are quite small while the stargate and dark shrine are quite a bit higher.

[image loading]



Zerg

+ Show Spoiler +

The zerg buildings give off very little since they all use the same morphing animation. The only difference is the size of the structure and the height of the health bar.

Lets start with one of the more obvious differences, a morphing Hive is much larger than a morphing Lair, in particular the five large "hook" things are quite a bit bigger when morphing to Hive than when morphing to Lair.

[image loading]

The early game structures of the zerg are the spawning pool, evolution chamber, baneling nest and roach warren. Again we can see that the height of each structure is different, most notably the baneling nest is quite a bit higher than the others.

[image loading]

Similar to the dark shrine, the spire is considerably taller than other 2x2 structures, making it easy to spot.

[image loading]

Also notice that the spine crawler is taller than the spore crawler.

Given this information, it should be clear which structures are spires, spores and spines in the following image.

[image loading]



Terran

+ Show Spoiler +

Terran buildings give away the least amount of information. From what I can tell, a barracks, factory and starport (and most other buildings) use the exact same animation until around 70% through where they change to resemble their final form. The factory's health bar is slightly lower than that of the other two structures but the difference is negligible.

[image loading]

The turret and sensor tower have circular structures. Since the sensor tower is much taller, we can again use the height of the health bar to distinguish between the two at a glance.

[image loading]

And all terran structures, sorted by height.

[image loading]



----------------

Why?

+ Show Spoiler +

In most situations, the player can simply click on the structure to confirm its identity. But in those rare cases when you only get a glimpse, such as a scouting zergling or overlord, then knowing this information could be beneficial.

Also, a very minor detail, but one might prefer to build certain buildings vertically rather than horizontally. For example, building two evolution chambers horizontally makes it easy to compare the height of the health bars and see that they are indeed the same structure. Building them vertically makes this comparison harder. Which in turn makes it easier to build, say a roach warren, underneath an evolution chamber and have an opponent think it may be a second evolution chamber if they didn't get enough time to click on it and confirm before their scouting zergling died.

I also think it's just good to know more about the nuances game too, but maybe that's just me.


pdc
CYFAWS
Profile Joined October 2012
Sweden275 Posts
December 18 2012 12:12 GMT
#2
now that is some high level scouting fine tuning
[F_]aths
Profile Blog Joined February 2010
Germany3947 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-12-18 13:01:05
December 18 2012 12:43 GMT
#3
Quite interesting. I sometimes had a feeling "this is building X", but needed to click on it to confirm. Now I know why I knew: I saw the health bar height.
You don't choose to play zerg. The zerg choose you.
dynwar7
Profile Joined May 2011
1983 Posts
December 18 2012 12:45 GMT
#4
Great great information

Though I am very sure..that there was a thread like this some time ago, with almost the same title, but it was something different, it was about, for example, how to see if a building is researching something, such as Twilight Council researching Blink, etc.

nevertheless this is great.
Regarding the imbalance, hilarious to see Zergs defending themselves....
KumihO.
Profile Joined December 2012
United States55 Posts
December 18 2012 12:52 GMT
#5
I think there are few people that will be able to use it, but a very cool idea. :D
iSHOKZ
Profile Joined July 2011
Germany138 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-12-18 12:59:10
December 18 2012 12:58 GMT
#6
Wow, i always had a feeling if its a forge or a gateway, but did not know why...
Kind of funny how the brain works without even knowing :D
pdc
Profile Blog Joined November 2010
23 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-12-18 13:12:30
December 18 2012 13:08 GMT
#7
On December 18 2012 21:45 dynwar7 wrote:
Great great information

Though I am very sure..that there was a thread like this some time ago, with almost the same title, but it was something different, it was about, for example, how to see if a building is researching something, such as Twilight Council researching Blink, etc.

nevertheless this is great.


Indeed, as far as I know, every building has an animation to indicate that it is researching or building something. Some of these are obvious, like the stargate or fleet beacon, while some are more subtle, like many zerg structures which jiggle only slightly.

However I have never heard anyone mention these types of visual details before to identify the structure itself, like the height of a spire's health bar, or the shadow under a stargate. Which is why I wrote the above post, as it seems as though this maybe be less well known information.

edit: building animations guide
dynwar7
Profile Joined May 2011
1983 Posts
December 18 2012 13:18 GMT
#8
Haha thanks for the link!
Regarding the imbalance, hilarious to see Zergs defending themselves....
Ender985
Profile Blog Joined August 2010
Spain910 Posts
December 18 2012 19:36 GMT
#9
Also a pretty obvious observartion but that might help somebody: all terran buildings use the same building animation in the starting stages, but since the building footprint of a terran CC is bigger than the barraks/factory/starport, you can tell if it's a CC just by its size. Even if you just see the SCV planting the very initial structure down before loosing vision, the minimap footprint will tell you.

BTW great post, learned a few things I wasn't aware of.
Member of the Pirate Party - direct democracy, institutional transparency, and freedom of information
Defenestrator
Profile Joined October 2011
400 Posts
December 18 2012 19:39 GMT
#10
Awesome =) Nice attention to detail.
Ultras and banelings go together like peas and carrots
illidan333
Profile Joined August 2010
Iran102 Posts
December 18 2012 19:58 GMT
#11
Very good thread, thank
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