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SC2 Optimal worker saturation - Page 2

Forum Index > SC2 General
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lepape
Profile Joined November 2005
Canada557 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-03-16 19:46:18
March 16 2010 19:45 GMT
#21
After reading this, I have one obvious question for you guys : when is it a good idea to stop producing workers? At 24 in mineral patches? Or is it best to always keep pumping them just so you can transfer them at your expo?

Also, for terran, when is a planetary fortress a better thing to build over the comsat thing? Is it only late game, when your new expos are already saturated from the start?
xnub
Profile Joined August 2009
Canada610 Posts
March 16 2010 20:01 GMT
#22
Drones do not move faster on creep ....

i Tho was somthing blizzard said right off the bat when they said creep would inc zerg speed
Loving the beta !! Weeeeeeee
da_head
Profile Blog Joined November 2008
Canada3350 Posts
March 16 2010 20:08 GMT
#23
On March 17 2010 04:37 TheBB wrote:
I guess one of them was timed in-game for one minute, while the other was timed with the game clock in a replay.

Show nested quote +
On March 17 2010 03:04 da_head wrote:
lol drones don't move faster on creep...have u guys even played sc1?
zerg's always required fewer workers because they don't need to maynard workers unlike the other races

The reference to SC1 is hardly relevant, and I'm pretty sure the reason why Zerg require fewer workers is wrong. This results from using the hatchery to make both drones and army units. First off, to increase production capacity, you need to build hatcheries, which you might as well do at expansions, and if you expand more, you need fewer workers. Secondly, you will have fewer workers because you need the larvae for other units.

how is it hardly relevant? you don't need to maynard workers because zerg can produce workers at a much higher rate than the other races due to having to make hatcheries at each expansion. yes there's also the issue of using larvae for attacking units, but that's obvious and i didn't feel like going into that. though perhaps it was necessary given the responses given in this thread...
When they see MC Probe, all the ladies disrobe.
semantics
Profile Blog Joined November 2009
10040 Posts
March 16 2010 20:10 GMT
#24
On February 25 2010 01:08 Volshok wrote:
I don't have Terran.

Show nested quote +
Toss:
12Probes: 457-533
16Probes: 629-686
20Probes: 725-781
22Probes: 743-819
+24Probes: 762-838+
26Probes: 762-838
30Probes: 781-857
34Probes: 781-857

24-26 Probes is full saturation on 8 minerals


Show nested quote +
Zerg
16 drones 925
17 drones 945
18 drones 990 -- 995
19 drones 1040 -- -1050
22 drones 1080
32 drones 1060

19-20 Drones is full saturation on 8 minerals



Both of these numbers were taken from posters on this board, but I didn't grab the names. Sorry to the OPs, I copy-pasted these for friends on another forum.

I did the zerg one

I didn't use a replay to tell me the resources like the toss was did

I recorded my game in that game i started with 32 drones on a feild
waited 2 mins
for workers to get into optimum area
then recording how many mins i got in a min

took away drones waited 1 min as workers should already be on a pretty optimum patch

then recorded 1 min repeated it again and again

did 18 and 19 drones twice to see consistency.

anyways about 18-19 drones is about optimum cost per get back which seems to be true about the toss so we can assume is the same for terran.
semantics
Profile Blog Joined November 2009
10040 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-03-16 20:12:38
March 16 2010 20:12 GMT
#25
On March 17 2010 05:01 xnub wrote:
Drones do not move faster on creep ....

i Tho was somthing blizzard said right off the bat when they said creep would inc zerg speed

They don't which probably to keep the ability to scout zerg possible early game else drones would rape scouting workers if they ever got on creep.
Exteray
Profile Blog Joined June 2007
United States1094 Posts
March 16 2010 20:39 GMT
#26
On March 17 2010 05:08 da_head wrote:
Show nested quote +
On March 17 2010 04:37 TheBB wrote:
I guess one of them was timed in-game for one minute, while the other was timed with the game clock in a replay.

On March 17 2010 03:04 da_head wrote:
lol drones don't move faster on creep...have u guys even played sc1?
zerg's always required fewer workers because they don't need to maynard workers unlike the other races

The reference to SC1 is hardly relevant, and I'm pretty sure the reason why Zerg require fewer workers is wrong. This results from using the hatchery to make both drones and army units. First off, to increase production capacity, you need to build hatcheries, which you might as well do at expansions, and if you expand more, you need fewer workers. Secondly, you will have fewer workers because you need the larvae for other units.

how is it hardly relevant? you don't need to maynard workers because zerg can produce workers at a much higher rate than the other races due to having to make hatcheries at each expansion. yes there's also the issue of using larvae for attacking units, but that's obvious and i didn't feel like going into that. though perhaps it was necessary given the responses given in this thread...

It's hardly relevant because you said "lol drones don't move faster on creep...have u guys even played sc1?".. and in sc1, nothing moves faster on creep, while in sc2, most zerg untis move faster on creep. So whether drones move faster on creep in sc1 has nothing to do with whether drones move faster on creep in sc2.
Wintermute
Profile Joined March 2010
United States427 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-03-16 21:02:08
March 16 2010 20:49 GMT
#27
Does any have any actual evidence that zerg mine at a different rate? Personally I've observed all workers to mine at the same rate, but if some one who has tested all three races in scientific and consistent way wants to contradict that, please do.

Until then, people should calm down.

Looks to me like 3 workers per patch is the absolute saturation point and around 2 1/2 is sort of a sweet spot. For zerg I'd certainly try to maintain at 2 1/2 per patch, so as I need to pull drones off to make stuff, I am still in the sweet spot.

For terran and protoss I'd say it depends how soon I expect to get up another expo.
Don't let me say this, but you're no worse than me; it's crazy.
danieldrsa
Profile Joined June 2008
Brazil523 Posts
March 16 2010 21:09 GMT
#28
I also did the test and 24 worker is the optimal number
However i did only test playing as toss

You should take on acount the possibility of losing workers, so i think 4 or 5 more doesnt hurt so much
-*-
MorroW
Profile Joined August 2008
Sweden3522 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-03-16 21:22:16
March 16 2010 21:19 GMT
#29
u dont have to time anything.
just put 2 drones on each mineral patch and start mining.
then after about 10 seconds they will have a good rhythm and then u can exit after 5 seconds and load the replay to see avg recourses

ill go test the 3 races myself cause i have a hard time believing they mine differently

edit: ah actually that didnt work so well, it didnt want to show me recourses since i had no opponent xd

is it true drone mine faster than scv??
Progamerpls no copy pasterino
semantics
Profile Blog Joined November 2009
10040 Posts
March 16 2010 21:22 GMT
#30
19-20 is the sweet spot the last 4 add like maybe 10 more mins a min not worth it unless your planning to maynard them
HydroZ
Profile Joined March 2010
United States34 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-03-16 22:01:19
March 16 2010 21:59 GMT
#31
Although I haven't seen the test that claims these are the correct rates, it doesn't intuitively make sense to me why one race would require less workers for saturation. It would make sense to standardize the collection rates so that no race gets an unfair advantage.

However, one might make the argument that Zerg should require less workers to reach saturation, given that they cannot produce both Drones and other units at the same time (while Protoss/Terran can produce Probes/SCV's at a constant rate). At the same time, holding Zerg to the same requirement for saturation seems to be consistent with their unit production system. Yes, you can't produce Drones constantly; but at the same time, you can produce other units 3, 4, 5 at a time, which the other races can't exactly do (at least not with one building). So the inability to constantly produce Drones is something Zerg gives up to be able to quickly produce any unit of their choice in large bundles. This would suggest that having unequal saturation numbers isn't fair (or the test was incorrect).
semantics
Profile Blog Joined November 2009
10040 Posts
March 16 2010 22:01 GMT
#32
On March 17 2010 06:59 HydroZ wrote:
Although I haven't seen the test that claims these are the correct rates, it doesn't intuitively make sense to me why one race would require less workers for saturation. It would make sense to standardize the collection rates so that no race gets an unfair advantage.

However, one might make the argument that Zerg should require less workers to reach saturation, given that they cannot produce both Drones and other units at the same time (while Protoss/Terran can produce Probes/SCV's at a constant rate). At the same time, holding Zerg to the same requirement for saturation seems to be consistent with their unit production system. Yes, you can't produce Drones constantly; but at the same time, you can produce other units 3, 4, 5 at a time, which the other races can't exactly do (at least not with one building). So the inability to constantly produce Drones is something Zerg gives up to be able to quickly produce any unit of their choice in large bundles.

in sc1 drones were the slowest miners i believe but it didn't matter as zerg expoed the most.

in sc2 from what i've tested zerg and toss are pretty much the same enough to just be the same.
ProoM
Profile Blog Joined May 2009
Lithuania1741 Posts
March 16 2010 22:07 GMT
#33
On February 24 2010 23:30 SubtleArt wrote:
How does the worker saturation / diminishing returns system work in starcraft 2? In BW it was basically just more workers > faster mining although the rate of increase gradually went down.

How does it compare to Starcraft 2? I heard with better AI its a lot more complicated, and in some instances having more workers might lower income? I don't know much about this so I'll let the more knowledgeable post their opinions

Just a note, in BW SCVs mined faster than probes or drones ;]. Also, in BW perfect probe saturation was ~24.
IMBA - International Mountain Bicycling Association.
Khalleb
Profile Blog Joined March 2009
Canada1909 Posts
March 30 2010 00:13 GMT
#34
On March 17 2010 07:07 ProoM wrote:
Show nested quote +
On February 24 2010 23:30 SubtleArt wrote:
How does the worker saturation / diminishing returns system work in starcraft 2? In BW it was basically just more workers > faster mining although the rate of increase gradually went down.

How does it compare to Starcraft 2? I heard with better AI its a lot more complicated, and in some instances having more workers might lower income? I don't know much about this so I'll let the more knowledgeable post their opinions

Just a note, in BW SCVs mined faster than probes or drones ;]. Also, in BW perfect probe saturation was ~24.


the problem is this is the drone who mine faster and this is the zerg who expand the most so ya we have a problem here
Liquid'Nony: "I only needed one probe to take down idra. I had to upgrade to a zealot for strelok."
Zeke50100
Profile Blog Joined February 2010
United States2220 Posts
March 30 2010 00:21 GMT
#35
I'm pretty sure numbers are wrong; all races should have the same number of workers needed for full saturation. The only variation that occurs is when different maps and/or different positions are used, due to the distance of the minerals. The workers all have the exact same movement speed, and Drones don't gain a speed boost from creep (you can tell by just eye-balling it, really)

2 per patch isn't saturation unless every patch happened to be close enough to the HQ (which doesn't exist as of now). 3 per patch is probably average (in regards to max saturation for each map). It doesn't matter if any more than 2 per patch has diminishing returns percentage-wise; it still brings you closer to optimal.
MeruFM
Profile Joined February 2010
United States167 Posts
March 30 2010 00:54 GMT
#36
This thread has lots of misinformation.

The workers mine the same speed.
16 is optimal. 2 per patch.
24 is saturation. 3 per patch. Adding 8 more workers gives about 20% more mineral. So 16 workers can already get 80% of the minerals at an expansion.
Zeke50100
Profile Blog Joined February 2010
United States2220 Posts
March 30 2010 01:00 GMT
#37
On March 30 2010 09:54 MeruFM wrote:
This thread has lots of misinformation.

The workers mine the same speed.
16 is optimal. 2 per patch.
24 is saturation. 3 per patch. Adding 8 more workers gives about 20% more mineral. So 16 workers can already get 80% of the minerals at an expansion.


Actually, Optimal can mean Saturation depending on the time period you observe the income for. For example, if you are comparing 1 base play into late-game with 16 workers to 1 base play into late-game with 24 workers, the 24 worker choice is optimal. I know this is an extreme example, but it's the easiest way of illustrating it ^_^
Tamerlane
Profile Joined July 2009
Canada426 Posts
March 30 2010 03:00 GMT
#38
to really find out what is optimal, you need to find out what is the cost of opportunity of adding more drones and this cost varies for each race (as their workers work differently) as well as each stage of the game

But the 24 = saturation of minerals is erroneous, some mineral spots (the closest to main obv) can be gathered at full time with only 2 workers on it. I'm fairly sure most maps have at least one spot for which this is the case, and a lot have 2 spots => that's why sometimes the real worker saturation comes at 22 workers... Although, I don't see how there could be a difference in income between 24 and 32 workers :o
AndyJay
Profile Blog Joined February 2010
Australia833 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-03-30 03:29:16
March 30 2010 03:07 GMT
#39
Zerg
16 drones 925
17 drones 945
18 drones 990 -- 995
19 drones 1040 -- -1050
22 drones 1080
32 drones 1060

19-20 Drones is full saturation on 8 minerals


The Zerg numbers are incorrect. Stop spreading misinformation. The actual Zerg numbers are very close, if not the same as the Protoss numbers.
lololol
Profile Joined February 2006
5198 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-03-30 21:00:50
March 30 2010 20:58 GMT
#40
Yes, the workers are practically identical.

The income from a saturated base is close to 800 minerals per minute(a replay timer minute to be exact).

From my test it appears that optimal saturation is at 3 workers for every slightly distant mineral patch and 2 for every close one(so usually around 22, I tested just on the blistering sands left main).
The close ones aren't actually mined with 100% efficiency, but if you add a third worker, it will just shuffle between patches every time it brings minerals back and barely improve mining efficiency(if at all).
I'll call Nada.
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