EPTBrutal Campaign - Critical Research / Upgrades - Page 5
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Shiladie
Canada1631 Posts
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Azn_Christian
United States153 Posts
Protoss Research Instant supply depots=instant wall/shield for marines and never supply blocked Attack speed since i go 3-0 really fast usally. Automated gas so less worry for me. Sci vessel esp for protecting the ordin tech reactors=less producing buildings. Zerg Research automated turret all the way....you youreslf said attack speed over health....turret=dps also helps when u cant get rines to it right away. i got Perdition Turret. Used it on all in for brutal . also useful for any defense. Hercules for the drop Mech regen cause i didn't use any specialists..well almost none. doesnt matter. didnt use either on All in for brutal (i killed the air for the mission) Research: Bunker, turret, orbital, marine, medic,seige tank were all the ups i actaullly got and used...so yea... Mercs: BC+war pigs+devil dogs. i only got seige breakers and dusk wings for last mission. fyi: first time playing the game for me was on brutal campaign and i nv had to go down to very hard or w.e | ||
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Matkap
Spain627 Posts
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LordYama
United States370 Posts
Doing the Nydus version of All In they are very helpful slowing the ground waves for your tanks to slaughter, although, truth be told, once you reach critical mass of tanks they do okay even without the disruptors. I like the idea of bogarting all the Zerg fliers, I enjoy being able to cheese the missions. Going to have to try it with the Emulator next go round. | ||
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ReiKo
Croatia1023 Posts
Anyways I was thinking about going all trough campaign on Brutal settings to get that achievement (as I did finished it on hard). Do I need to achieve bonus missions in every mission on Brutal to get BRUTAL achievement (as finished whole campaign?) Also, do I need to accomplish all avoidable missions like Tosh/Nova? | ||
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Archas
United States6531 Posts
Ultra-Capacitors > Vanadium Plating This is a fairly cut-and-dry choice. Since all Terran units (barring the gimmicky Predator) are ranged, this research option effectively increases the DPS of all your core units. The Vanadium Plating is useful, but since you have the Medic and the SCV for healing biological/mechanical units, it's not really necessary. It would have uses in "holdout" missions like Outbreak and All In, if not for the fact that your infantry is garrisoned in Bunkers (nullifying the health boost), and if your Siege Tanks are getting hit at al, it's by Psionic Storm, Colossi, or Kerrigan's AoE. The former two are remedied by the Drakkan Laser + SCVs repairing, and you can't do much about the latter anyway. All in all, I'd rather take down my enemies faster so that damage is avoided in the first place. Therefore, I chose the Ultra-Capacitors. Orbital Depots < Micro-Filtering Admittedly, my first Normal campaign run led to me using the Orbital Depots in order to save lost mining time for SCVs building them manually. However, on Hard and especially Brutal, you learn quickly that Vespene Gas is a blessing to have. Micro-Filtering gives you the influx of Vespene Gas needed for when you GOTTA have that Siege Tank or Banshee out now. Besides, if you're playing on Brutal, your macro should be good enough to keep yourself from being supply blocked. The Orbital Depots are a convenience, yes, but I find the Micro-Filtering to be a necessity. I wouldn't pass it up, especially since it meshes well with... Automated Refinery > Command Center Reactor The Automated Refinery is just awesome. Not only do you get to save SCVs for other tasks instead of gathering Vespene Gas (effectively increasing mineral output / building production while saving minerals on Vespene gatherers), they gather gas remotely, so you can easily build your Refineries at an expansion and just leave. No Command Center required for easy gas! It also helps that on later missions, where you have 2 or even 3 geysers, the SCVs normally assigned to Vespene duty can do other stuff for you. In my opinion, the SCVs freed up from this alone make up for not having double SCV production capacity. Most missions let you one-base anyway, so Maynarding isn't a big concern, and you get M.U.L.E.s on top of that, so mass-producing SCVs isn't too exciting. Raven < Science Vessel No contest here. The Raven's spells aren't tide-turning like the Science Vessel's healing abilities are. In Maw of the Void especially, having a squad of Vessels to heal your Battlecruisers (without the repair cost that SCVs require!) is invaluable. The Raven just doesn't have anything to compete with that. Granted, Auto-Turrets are miles better than the dinky nerfed Irradiate, but you don't use Science Vessels as an offensive unit anyway. Stick to easy healing, and let your mech army do the shooting. Tech Reactor > Orbital Strike Another no-brainer. The Orbital Strike is a nifty little tool, but by the time you actually reach this point in the research tree, infantry see less and less use. What's the point in instant "rally-anywhere" Marines when you can pump out two Siege Tanks or Battlecruisers at once? Infantry are more effective when garrisoned in Bunkers later on, negating the Orbital Strike advantage (unless you count rescuing Drop Pods in Gates of Hell, but really, Tech Reactors are far more useful, and you can use M.U.L.E.s for the Drop Pods, anyway). Go with the addon. Zerg Research Obtained: Shrike Turret < Fortified Bunker Now why would you use the Shrike Turret in the first place? A Bunker's function is to shield the occupants from attacks. Therefore, isn't it only logical that increasing the Bunker's ability to take hits is better than a dinky little peashooter turret? The Shrike Turret doesn't contribute that much to the DPS of the Bunker. Fortified Bunkers, on the other hand, are significantly more durable. Planetary Fortress > Perdition Turret Now, I've never actually used the Perdition Turret, so I don't know what its exact capabilities are. I do know the power of the Planetary Fortress, though, and that alone was enough to persuade me in my choice. Build one at a choke point, slap a couple SCVs on it, and add a handful of Siege Tanks to keep the SCVs from being sniped, and that choke isn't going to be overrun for a while. Perdition Turrets seem just too fragile to hold a defensive position adequately unless you build a bunch of them, and even then, those are resources you could've spent on a Planetary Fortress and more. If someone is willing to explain the virtues of the Perdition Turret to me, maybe I'll rethink my stance... but until then, I'm stickin' with my Turtle Machine O' Death. Predator < Hercules To be honest, both units are pretty crappy. But while the Predator is a gimmick at best, at least the Hercules is the key to an easy Brutal win on "The Moebius Factor", and that's enough for me. I'll take a unit with exactly one use over a unit with exactly none. Cellular Reactor ?? Regenerative Bio-Steel This one was the most difficult choice for me. On the one hand, Cellular Reactors increase the effectiveness of Ghosts, Spectres, Wraiths (lol), Medics, Thors, Ravens, Medivacs, Banshees, Battlecruisers, AND Science Vessels dramatically (well, not so much for Medics and Thors, but whatever). That extra energy is soooo useful, ESPECIALLY on the latter four units. Extra healing time for your Vessels and Medivacs? Two consecutive Yamato Cannon blasts? More cloaking time?? Do want do want do want. This is the choice I made for my Brutal run. On the other hand, Regenerative Bio-Steel was the choice I made for my Normal run, and it's also an exceptional tool. It saves resources in the long run, allowing you to skimp on repairing your mechanical units (which happen to be most of your army anyway), and is particularly nice for Mercenary units, since you only get a limited supply of them. Both research options are great choices, and there have been times I've chosen one option, then later on down the road, wished I had chosen the other. It's personal preference, in my opinion. If you like the idea of a self-repairing mech army, Regenerative Bio-Steel is probably the better choice (but even then, Cellular Reactors let Science Vessels heal more of your units faster... what a conundrum!). If you're a fan of using Banshees and Battlecruisers to attack while being healed by your trusty Vessels, perhaps you'd be better off with the Cellular Reactor. Again, both choices are good. Hive Mind Emulator ?? Psi Disruptor Another difficult choice, but this time, your primary mission of concern when choosing your building is All In. If you destroyed the Nydus Worms, go with the Hive Mind Emulator. If you took down the orbital platform, opt for the Psi Disruptor. Unfortunately, I found while playing All In (air units killed) that Kerrigan and Hydralisks loved target-firing my Psi Disruptors, forcing me to rebuild them over and over, only to see them destroyed yet again. Maybe I didn't place them optimally, but for that reason, I chose the Hive Mind Emulator because of the lolz to be had. In fact, on Shatter the Sky, I took out the latter three bases with a control group of about 25 Ultralisks, 6 Brood Lords, and 13 Medics. Much fun. I'll do some analysis on the unit upgrades later. | ||
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cepheids
Singapore3 Posts
Consequence is... You may not even need Science Vessels for All In. | ||
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bobucles
410 Posts
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L6-636536
United States94 Posts
Ultra-Capacitors > Vanadium Plating 5% attack speed x 3 = 15% IAS versus 15% bonus HP. Being that the majority of your issues are resolved by killing faster NOT outlasting the enemy Ultra Capacitors ftw not to mention how much more amazing Mech and Marines/Firebats get. Orbital Depots = Micro-Filtering I feel both are equal oddly. Never getting supply blocked means you can focus more on your army and production whereas getting more gas is well getting more gas. I felt like this was more of a gameplay preference I went mass Bio and found orbital depots significantly more win and gas less necessary in the short sprint but gas also really,really helps with massing bigger stronger units. Automated Refinery = Command Center Reactor Being able to mass SCV's means you can have a instantly massive economy for your bio army OR not having to worry about 3 - 6 - 9 SCV's eating up supply / building them allows you to over focus on mineral production and mech. I personally preferred Reactor because I had a issue with massing rax for more bio. Science Vessel > Raven Heals Mech for Free versus Point Defense Drone that you hardly ever get a chance to use in the first place. Tech Reactor > Orbital Strike Orbital Strike just does not provide the same returns when compared to being able to efficiently turn every single building you own into 2. Two BC's Two Marauders Two Firebats Two Ghosts Two Goliaths Two Vultures etc. versus 4 Marines 2 Medic dropping in anywhere on the map 0.o Zerg Research Obtained: Shrike Turret < Fortified Bunker Shrike Turret is in my opinion adding 1 additional marine that cannot be stimmed or upgraded? Versus a whopper of a HP bonus on a fortification building. Planetary Fortress > Perdition Turret CC's are expensive and Perdition Turrets are not however PF's are amazingly OP if you change the conventional thinking around them. But Perdition Turrets "Burrow" when not being used meaning that they effectively replace your Supply Depot Wall with 2 1/2 Firebat's with outstanding range and durability that will be ignored by air units not to mention their splash damage is also comparable to having 2 1/2 firebats =P Predator < Hercules I Actually used both units in brutal with great effect. Predators do 40 damage in a massive AoE ontop of their attacks per attack (+15% attack speed makes them rape). Meaning a pack of oh lets say 5 Predators will do 200 damage extremely fast and their speed is no joke for a mech melee unit. However the Hercules is basically like having 5 or 6 Drop-Ships act as a single unit and drops them all off at the speed of 10 dropships imo, On All-In (Ground) I actually built mass bio MMMF plus two medivacs and a sci vessle with two Hercules and had the easiest time of my life just busting a Super Mario everytime a Nydus worm popped. The Only issue though is that Kerrigan hates Hercules and will one shot them if she sees them including the crew inside =(. Cellular Reactor = Regenerative Bio-Steel For the most Part I am in favor of Regenerative Bio-Steel simply because it reduces or nullifies the need to repair your mech especially when combined with Sci Vessels. Where as Cellular Reactor means your medics, Medivacs, Sci Vessels, BC's , Thor's no longer have any form of energy issues. Its a coin toss on what units you use more. Hive Mind Emulator = Psi Disruptor All You, one can be more cheese then the other. Units - Infantry 10/10 Marines - They have yet to prove to me that they are not the back bone if any terran army both upgrades are full of win. 10/10 Medics - Both Upgrades are equally full of win although the removal of tech reactor requirement might seem useless in the long run the fact remains that you only get all that protoss tech at the end of the game. Also their healing buff is so OP that you actually wont need bunkers for a majority of the game Especially with . . . 7/10 Firebats - Some of the best tanks I have ever used Bio, High Armor , Great Splash , Great Damage. 3/10 Marauders - No Stim made me cry because of this neither upgrade was all that viable to me since if you needed the additional slow you would eventually get Psi Disruptors. 5.5/10 Reapers - Suprisingly Great in Bunkers since they only take up 1 Slot last time I checked this made the range / light dmg buff extremely impressive when stacked into bunkers. Not to mention that they are amazing in levels where cannons / spine crawlers inflict heavy damage. Or on All-in Ground combo'd with Hercules instant Nydus and Base Defense Removal makes them perfect replacements for Marauders as Bio units. ~3.5/10 Ghosts / Spectres - Both are Horrible in Brutal simply because the computer auto runs away from any nukes you drop and their abilities require too much APM. Spectres over Ghosts simply because No EMP on Ghosts is fail beyond comprehension. Mech - 3/10 Hellions - Only if you prefer them over firebat's but keep in mind that hellions are mech so they dont regenerate health until late game IF you research bio steel they do more damage then firebats however but require significantly more attention because of this. I strongly recommend against them. 3 or 6/10 With Upgrades Goliaths - Their upgrades make them look better then what they are and in my opinion they require both upgrades to be good which is a problem since marines fill the roles better. However upgraded they are fantastic units when built into comps or worked with my favorite unit the Hercules since they attack both ground and air in addition to doing bonus damage against armored this makes them a effective replacement for marauders who in single player campaign are in my opinion nearly worthless. 2/10 Diamond Backs - Require too much attention just like Hellions their ability to move and attack might seem great though but once you see the upgrades of +1 range +75(100?) hp you more then willingly toss them out the window as their usefulness just does not add up to the needs and cost. 10/10 Siege Tanks - Do we really need to talk about the bread and butter units? Its a no brainer to fully upgrade the tank less Friendly Fire? Moar Damage!? 2 or 6/10 Vultures - They're just downright awful too easy to kill and un-upgraded spider-mines are just awful. But the upgrades buff spider mines to replenish at 15 mins a piece and the range increase makes Spider-mines a little more then just good its borderline OP. This means that with not one but TWO Vultures you can successfully use only one turret and perdition to act as your entire base defense. But the problem is is once again you need both upgrades otherwise this unit is just . . . awful. 5/10 Thor - The Immortality Upgrade makes them disgustingly worth every penny as when they lead a charge they virtually turn their corpses into victory campaigns. The upgraded 350mm is worthless in my opinion the range is too small and the fact that its no longer a single target lock on makes it even weaker. As a unit however the Thor is a Thor, high hp fantastic anti ground control and increasing its attack speed makes it all the more devastating but you genuinely never find a good reason why to use more then two if any. 6/10 Predator - These units are actually very good for what they're worth and what they're for but they're mech making them poor choices for efficiency. Air 7/10 Viking - Splash Damage yes plz even MORE outrageous anti air range?! Heck Yeah! As a ground unit you should be punched as a air unit they're devastating against well anything in the air. Wraith - No, I do not see any reason why to ever upgrade it, in its premier show case mission it preformed far less then sub par. 9.5/10 Banshee - Upgrade the Shock Battery ASAP! These things are Demi Gods for some reason they just inexplicably destroy everything. 4/10 in normal cases 8/10 with Hercules Medivacs - Yes Medivacs DO get outshined by the ground version. However after some thinking the healing two units at a time is better then over-relying on Medics especially in Bio Comps. Why? Because primarily your comp is marines or if your me Marines and Firebats. Medivacs being able to heal two at a time and flying means that they effectively heal all the stimmed marines sooner then your medics simply because of the surface to area requirement and your Firebats are significantly less likely under all circumstances die. The Mass Drop pod upgrade however IS useless, and if your using medivacs to transport units over the Hercules it should be Thors , Siege Tanks , Goliaths inside of them. 3/10 Battlecruiser - Not worth the cost or use for any upgrades or usage on the field. Too Expensive Final Boss one shots them they don't stun they're too slow, they're slower then Thors (????) and the damage they do (despite attack speed) is not impressive. 1/10 Raven - Great on Multi-player not so much against primarily Zerg Hordes you never get a real chance to use any of its abilities for anything really. 8.5/10 With Zerg Specialist Tech 10/10 With Bio-Steel Regen Sci-Vessel - See Irradiate? Just pretend that does not exist these things make up their price in cost instantly they repair everything and are always good to have at least one or two no if ands or buts. Then there's the Base upgrades they're all good with the exception of multi SCV Build and +75 HP Turrets, Just because turrets don't stand alone when you build them and needing buildings sooner does not occur often or outweigh the need of resources. Then there's the mercenaries, I only bought Devil Dogs(Firebats), After that I felt the rest where too expensive and un-necessary for my goals. I beat the game on Brutal Three times (Like the Campaign Missions). But this is how I would've rated the units | ||
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itzjohnny
62 Posts
Protoss Research Ultra-Capacitors vs. Vanadium Plating I chose armor because I thought the increments for attack speed were too little for it to be of much benefit. However, I may be wrong because I've never given this a second chance after seeing and using it for the first time. I'm a typical MM user and I always get all 3/3 upgrades on my army. The extra life lets me stim my marines and not risk them dying as fast as they normally would. The extra life on the medics also lets them stay on the battlefield longer to heal marines. Orbital Depots vs. Micro-Filtering In the end, I stuck with Orbital Depots because the 1 second build time for supply depots was just too addicting to get away from. Never getting supply blocked and more mining time for your SCV since it doesn't actually stick around to build the depot. Automated Refinery vs. Command Center Reactor I used to choose automated refinery for a while when I first played this game thinking that no SCVs mining gas means extra SCVs mining minerals and quicker burst of gas early on. Having the CC built two SCVs at once helps saturate all your bases really quick and will exceed the amount of minerals mined from those 3 SCVs that were on gas.I think it is well worth sacrificing the burst of gas at the beginning of each mission. Using a basic MM upgrade army, you will be more mineral hungry than you are gas. Science Vessel vs. Raven I immediately chose the Science Vessel after I read that it can heal mechanic units. I mean, to me, that is really a no-brainer. It's like having a mechanic MM army that can fly. The raven's abilities combined cannot even compare with the Science Vessel's ability to heal mech. Tech Reactor vs. Orbital Strike Although this may seem as an obvious choice, I also think Orbital Strike is very useful if you're sticking to a MM upgrade composition. However, with the type of missions that they give us, I find Orbital Strike to be less effective than it should be. Immediately reinforcing your MM army is great, but there are also missions that require higher tech units to beat, and unfortunately, those are usually the harder ones. Despite all of that, I would still choose Tech Reactor for the reasons stated before. If you can keep up unit production, then you should have no problem if your first army ever dies. Zerg Research Strike Turret vs. Fortified Bunker Fortified bunker is very helpful. Since both are stationary and static defenses, the one with more life would prove to be better against swarms of attack, that come very frequently in missions. The damage from the Strike Turrets are really low for it to be useful, IMO. Planetary Fortress vs. Perdition Turret I've never really used either of these so I can't give input on which is better. I have not really found any particular use with any of these. Predator vs. Hercules I've only found a good use for Hercules, which was in one of the missions. Other than that, I don't really use either of these as well. Cellular Reactor vs. Regenerative Bio-Steel I choose Regenerative Bio-Steel because it is a big hassle to bring SCVs to the front line in order to heal your mech, especially if you don't have Science Vessels. Since my main bioball can already deal and do amazing DPS, a little buff for the support units of higher tech would be helpful. Hive Mind Emulator vs. Psi Disruptor I don't really use either of these much but the only real use I've found for these two would be the last mission, All-In. I would still use Psi Disruptor because it slows down Zerg Swarms in that mission, which allows Siege Tanks to optimize their damage. This works wonders against the Ultralisk. Hive Mind Emulator is good for the mind controlling units, particularly well in All-In (Air). Although, the amount of units you can mind control is dependent on how much your computer can handle. You can literally mind control 5+ tabs of mutalisks and broodlords if your computer is able to handle it. As for unit upgrades, I always get the Medic upgrades first. The upgrade that increases heal rate by 33% and then Marine stim pack upgrade. As for the rest of the units, they aren't as big of a deal. Ideally, you'd want all the upgrades for Marines, Medics, Siege Tanks, CC, Bunkers, Banshees, Vikings, and maybe a few others that I can't immediately recall off the top of my head. Typically, you'd want to upgrade the units you're going to be using most often. The rest of the stuff are all optional and not a must, IMO. | ||
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undyinglight
United States611 Posts
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Hautamaki
Canada1311 Posts
Protoss Research Ultra-Capacitors vs. Vanadium Plating attack speed benefits ranged units more while hp benefits melee units more. Given that the entire terran army is ranged, this is a no-brainer. Orbital Depots vs. Micro-Filtering The main benefit of orbital depots is to prevent yourself from getting supply blocked. If you are good enough at the game to avoid getting supply blocked, micro filtering is obviously the much better choice. Automated Refinery vs. Command Center Reactor the main benefit of automated refineries is to reduce the amount of scv's you need, which frees up more supply for your ground army. In other words, automated refinery only becomes a significant bonus when you're at 200/200. You'll spend 99% of the single player campaign below 200/200 making the command center reactor a no-brainer. The fact that you can skip a command center to mine gas is trivial because there are no gas-only expansions in the single player campaign, meaning you'd want to make a command center at every exp anyways. Science Vessel vs. Raven In the hands of a great player, the Raven's abilities are good enough to make the Raven worthwhile, but 99% of people will get more utility out of the Science Vessel's repair in the single player campaign. You don't have to micro science vessels, which gives you more time to manage the rest of your army and your base, which is a higher benefit to most players with APM below 200. I found the vessels key on Maw of the Void and SuperNova. Tech Reactor vs. Orbital Strike If All-in wasn't such a defense oriented mission, this would be a difficult choice. But since All-in is the only truly difficult mission, you need to make choices based around it and the Orbital strike is almost useless for all-in; the only time you'd ever use it might be to help kill nydus worms, but that benefit wouldn't make up for the lack of double production at every building, and banshees can get the job done just fine. Zerg Research Strike Turret vs. Fortified Bunker The strike turret would have to do at least 3x as much dps as it does now to make this an interesting choice. Planetary Fortress vs. Perdition Turret Planetary fortresses are better against hydras and Kerrigan while perdition turrets are better against everything else. Personally I think this choice is a wash. It's a pity that you can't call down mules or scan with planetaries; that would make them better. But as it is, I think this choice is a wash. People assuming PFs are way better may not be factoring in things like footprint and build time. Predator vs. Hercules As everyone knows, preds are worthless in every mission, and hercules are worthless in every mission but 2 (they are useful on Maw of the Void too). Go for the hercs. Cellular Reactor vs. Regenerative Bio-Steel Get cellular if you like and are good at using spellcasters. Get regenerative bio-steel if you like mech and air units. I got the regen. Hive Mind Emulator vs. Psi Disruptor Emulator is necessary for All-in vs air units, while the disruptor is necessary for All-in vs nydus. For hard mode, try beating All-in on Brutal with the wrong choice; I found it took me nearly twice as long. | ||
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Conrose
437 Posts
Then at some point, hit the northern base, it's got the lair that allows the production of Overseers. | ||
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.Aar
2177 Posts
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Offhand
United States1869 Posts
On October 23 2010 06:15 Aeres wrote: Protoss Research Obtained: Ultra-Capacitors > Vanadium Plating Orbital Depots < Micro-Filtering Automated Refinery > Command Center Reactor Raven < Science Vessel Tech Reactor > Orbital Strike Zerg Research Obtained: Shrike Turret < Fortified Bunker Planetary Fortress > Perdition Turret Predator < Hercules Cellular Reactor ?? Regenerative Bio-Steel Hive Mind Emulator ?? Psi Disruptor These are all the best choices except cellular reactor over bio-steel. Bio-steel is great on practically any mission they introduce a mech unit. TBH I never needed PFs for anything, including All-In, but perdition turret sucks so that choice doesn't really matter. Beyond that, you can really just medic/marine the entire campaign on brutal. Both medic upgrades are great even if the reactor bit becomes redundant later in the campaign. An upgraded medic can heal a combat shielded marine through a fully charged, fully upgraded void ray and is WAY better then a medivac with split heal. Science vessels are also great in the later missions. Mainly because that's where they introduce all the better mech units and the units they introduce usually are good for whatever the mission is without upgrades. It's possible to switch from medic/marine to banshee/viking/sci vessel with all the appropriate upgrades, but that only pays off on certain missions and forces you to turtle for a while. | ||
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Wargizmo
Australia1237 Posts
On December 12 2010 09:19 Offhand wrote: These are all the best choices except cellular reactor over bio-steel. Bio-steel is great on practically any mission they introduce a mech unit. TBH I never needed PFs for anything, including All-In, but perdition turret sucks so that choice doesn't really matter. Bio steel sucks because the regen is soooooo slow, which means it's useless in battle, and outside of battle you may as well just send an SCV, then once you get science vessels it becomes completely obsolete. Only mission it actually made a difference at all for me was the battlecruiser one as it helps nullify the damage over time from the warp fields, although that mission is so easy anyway so it hardly matters. On the other hand the cellular reactor enhances quite a lot of support units by quite a bit, it's not amazing but it's still good, I've got it on 2 of my 3 playthroughs and it's definitely overall a more useful ability. I also want to throw in another vote for the ridiculous banshee/viking/science vessel combo - this made my brutal playthrough actually easier than my hard playthrough. | ||
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nalgene
Canada2153 Posts
On brutal, is it possible to take some science vessels+ air units to kill the bottom left zerg base? | ||
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Wargizmo
Australia1237 Posts
On December 10 2010 13:40 Hautamaki wrote: Automated Refinery vs. Command Center Reactor the main benefit of automated refineries is to reduce the amount of scv's you need, which frees up more supply for your ground army. In other words, automated refinery only becomes a significant bonus when you're at 200/200. You'll spend 99% of the single player campaign below 200/200 making the command center reactor a no-brainer. The fact that you can skip a command center to mine gas is trivial because there are no gas-only expansions in the single player campaign, meaning you'd want to make a command center at every exp anyways. Actually not having to use 3 SCVs to mine gas is the equivelent of getting at least 3 instant SCVs for free at the start of every level (since you don't have to use them on gas), which is actually a better start than being able to train two at once. On All In, which starts with 3 refineries you're practically getting 9 SCVs for free straight off the bat. IMO this is much better than being able to train two at once. Also on All in you'll very much be maxed out, and since that's the hardest mission it's very much worth choosing the automated refineries for this reason alone. | ||
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Offhand
United States1869 Posts
It sets you up for the later part of the mission, but coming out of like the first 5 minutes of any brutal level with a substantial army normally means you've beaten it. Bio steel sucks because the regen is soooooo slow, which means it's useless in battle, and outside of battle you may as well just send an SCV, then once you get science vessels it becomes completely obsolete. Only mission it actually made a difference at all for me was the battlecruiser one as it helps nullify the damage over time from the warp fields, although that mission is so easy anyway so it hardly matters. On the other hand the cellular reactor enhances quite a lot of support units by quite a bit, it's not amazing but it's still good, I've got it on 2 of my 3 playthroughs and it's definitely overall a more useful ability. I've never found cellular reactor that good for support units. I think making a few extra medics is better if you're actually running out of energy. Medics also have an absurdly efficient heal which makes energy issues a rarity. Didn't need ghosts/spectres for any mission. Yeah bio-steel is slow but it only helps sci vessel armies anyway (sci vessels might actually run into energy problems). On December 13 2010 20:25 nalgene wrote: On brutal, is it possible to take some science vessels+ air units to kill the bottom left zerg base? I assume you mean Shatter the Skies (correct me if I'm wrong). And yes, you can banshee/viking/sci vessel that whole map. Just don't expect to get the speed run achievement (you'll need a ground force for that). There's two neighboring expansions to your starter base that are really easy to take if only for gas (another thing that's awesome about auto-refinery, no need to build command centers). | ||
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Offhand
United States1869 Posts
Research Protoss Tech reactor sci vessel auto-refinery micro-filtering ultra-capacitors Zerg Hive mind emulater regenerative bio-steel Hercules Planetary fortress (technically better then turret but still not used) fortified bunker (shrike turret is fun in the earlier missions, this choice also isn't that important) Armory upgrades base both bunker upgrades both scv upgrades (let's you play the campaign like the humans in WC3, which is stupidly easy) orbital command for CC infantry both marine upgrades both medic upgrades both marauder upgrades vehicles both tank upgrades both goliath upgrades Goliath upgrades are really sweet but goliaths themselves aren't that great. starships Everything except wraith upgrades. If you want to turtle certain missions and mass BCs, their abilities are actually quite good. Dominion None. Although I've heard that All-in can be done relying on Thor upgrades. Mercs Everything except devil dogs. Fuck devil dogs. This is with the full amount of money availible in one play through spent. Things like the bunker upgrades, goliath, and bc really aren't necessary at all. | ||
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