The vision of SC2 Noob School is to be a place where mid to low level players can learn the mechanics and techniques used by the best-of-the-best SC2 players. I think we all in the community can feel that Starcraft 2 is going to be the biggest thing to happen in E-Sports in a long time, and I hope to usher newcomers into the realm of competitive RTS with a comprehensive series of videos to first educate, and second entertain.
Well, I haven't updated this thread in a long while, but I guess it's about time.
My latest video focuses on the bane of all Zerg's existance ZvT on Lost Temple: The dreaded THOR DROP!
You people have no idea how difficult it was for me to sit and watch zergs get thor dropped for hours at a time. Honestly one of the most depressing things I've ever done....
Oh, and I'm gonna actually update the front page of this thread again--hooray!
On June 23 2010 10:51 yarkO wrote: hang a sheet behind your chair or something. looking into your room isn't cool.
Hang a sheet behind his chair? what is he chriscrocker? He's fine. Anyways, Trebis, keep going, your doing a great job easing in the beginning players into high level concepts that are fundamental to starcraft. Learning these fundamentals early on, properly, helps in the long run exponentially.
This would help a lot of players out. Like me, I was in Gold in the Beta. I knew most of the concepts, but I still didn't really know how to play well.
I feel like I'm 13 all over again have a webcam chat with a stranger. He is trying to present himself as an educator, and seeing his bedroom doesn't do him any favors.
The concept itself is fine and you are doing well in terms of SC2 content. I just disagree with the presentation of your face. I don't want to see your unmade bed and lack of wall decorations. Doing something simple like hanging up a sheet or a poster behind your head so it looks more professional would go a long way.
...ignore the haters man... youre doing a good job... youre room doesn't have to be fancy at all... you're here to educate noob players and thats it... posters nor decors doesn't help people to get better anyways!!! kudos to you my man!!!...
On June 23 2010 11:09 yarkO wrote: I feel like I'm 13 all over again have a webcam chat with a stranger. He is trying to present himself as an educator, and seeing his bedroom doesn't do him any favors.
The concept itself is fine and you are doing well in terms of SC2 content. I just disagree with the presentation of your face. I don't want to see your unmade bed and lack of wall decorations. Doing something simple like hanging up a sheet or a poster behind your head so it looks more professional would go a long way.
Dude what webcam chats were you having with strangers when you were 13?
Day9 doesn't give a crap and it doesn't make any difference at all. It's a project to help people within / new to the community not air on national TV.
On June 23 2010 11:28 PipeWeed wrote: ...ignore the haters man... youre doing a good job... youre room doesn't have to be fancy at all... you're here to educate noob players and thats it... posters nor decors doesn't help people to get better anyways!!! kudos to you my man!!!...
...freakin kids...
Nobody is hating. He asked for feedback and I'm giving it to him. 'freakin kids'? How old are you man?
I turned on the video and the first thing I thought was 'Great, another person like Orb who broadcasts from their dorm room. Woop de do". As I previously posted, the content itself is GREAT, it's the presentation that bothers me.
On June 23 2010 11:09 yarkO wrote: I feel like I'm 13 all over again have a webcam chat with a stranger. He is trying to present himself as an educator, and seeing his bedroom doesn't do him any favors.
The concept itself is fine and you are doing well in terms of SC2 content. I just disagree with the presentation of your face. I don't want to see your unmade bed and lack of wall decorations. Doing something simple like hanging up a sheet or a poster behind your head so it looks more professional would go a long way.
Dude what webcam chats were you having with strangers when you were 13?
Day9 doesn't give a crap and it doesn't make any difference at all. It's a project to help people within / new to the community not air on national TV.
Awesome video man.
It was 10-11 years ago and I chatted in Hotmail rooms (which led to MSN/webcam chats with 'strangers'). Nobody said I was the coolest kid on the block
On June 23 2010 10:51 yarkO wrote: hang a sheet behind your chair or something. looking into your room isn't cool.
truly useful post 2 minutes after thread was created, you bolt into the thread with quality constructive criticism; bravo
anyways, I really like this concept should help a lot of players looking for help when the game releases we'll soon see how many new gamers choose to dedicate themselves to starcraft in the coming years and they'll definitely need some early guidance to ease the learning curve
When the OP asks for feedback, and then someone gives their feedback, maybe you should leave it to the OP to interpret that feedback instead of 'bolting into the thread with your constructive criticism'. to the other posters.
He asked, I answered. The rest of you can eat dirt for all I care.
If Day9's room was that bland, and he had a webcam pointed at his bed, and had no posters on his walls (which, by the way, lend credence to the fact that he is a nerd talking about nerd shit in his nerd room. none of this is a bad thing, it just suits him.), then YES, I would totally comment about that.
I'm not complaining about anything. Obviously when you people read the word 'feedback' what you think he wants is endless pats on the back. I'm not knocking him or what he's doing, I'm offering my own opinion and 'feedback', just like he asked.
If you don't agree, that's fine, but why don't you stick to offering your feedback on his programming and not my opinions.
Good work. Although I'd say that you should watch out saying it's bad to accumulate gas as zerg. Not only is it more acceptable, but I'd say it's completely acceptable, since generally it's beneficial to save up gas to produce as many units as you can when the tech pops up, such as mutalisks or hydralisks. While hydralisks are only 2:1 resource ratio, having a stockpile of gas still helps. Not only for the range upgrade, but because it's very likely one would have more than a 2:1 mineral mining income compared to gas (typically about 3 to 1). Keeping a bit of extra money around as zerg is also useful for faster composition switches, although it's pretty difficult to do since they need to keep their army big enough to defend or control map.
...actually correct my man!!!... english is not my first language... but anyways you had your point so no big deal... everyone has their own opinion...
I think it would actually be really weird/awkward if you put a sheet behind you, so my constructive criticism is don't listen to yank0's constructive criticism. Just my opinion.
I've been lurking the past few days. Figured I'd make an account to help you out, since I enjoyed your content and like your general idea.
Please change your background. I know it sounds shallow, but presentation is very important. I do biology presentations, and when it comes to posters (I've always found it humorous that I'm presenting my science projects the same way I was back in middle school), they have to be easy on the eyes, or you'll get ignored.
The human eye is drawn toward open white space. There's a significant glare from your window, and it is distracting.
If you absolutely, positively must keep your face in the video, that's the only thing that I would say "needs" to be fixed.
Personally, though, I would do away with the constant video of your face unless you have a very good reason. It adds another thing for my eyes to be distracted by instead of the game.
I don't see why you couldn't keep the video of yourself while the game isn't going on, like towards the end when you start talking about multi tasking. There's nothing else for me to be looking at anyways, so it's fine.
When you put yourself in the game, though, you're telling the audience that at some point you want us to look at you and... it never really comes.
It's not a huge deal, more of a polishing thing. "Why do I want these people to be looking at my face the whole game?"
In the end, if you decide you absolutely, positively, must keep that shot of you in the videos, the glare has to go. And honestly, you'd probably have to do something about your back wall as well if you really want to polish things. The eye, as we said before, is attracted to open, white spaces.
If you remove the glare area from your vid, we still have a huge section of your wall that is light, and draws the eyes away toward the bottom right corner. You also have the disadvantage of having your bed visible, which invites our eyes to try to make sense of the for/back ground, which further distracts from the game.
The reason Day 9's setup works is because he has that poster on the left (black area so your eyes are centered on him). If he didn't have it, our eyes would be drawn to the left of his head, instead of him.
My advice? Remove the video of yourself except when you want to make a big point. This gives you two big advantages. One, it lets people focus on your content. You want to be known as more than just a pretty face, or the guy who puts his face in videos. Two, by waiting to use your mug except when necessary, it allows your points to be more effective, since it creates the illusion of conversation, which isn't the case when you're a tiny little man in the corner of the "big picture."
I think this project shows great promise. Just needs a little polish.
Hey Cpt. Nasty, grats on an awesome first post--I really appreciate the feedback.
I have to agree with you on pretty much everything you said. I'm gonna see what I can do about making my background better, although I am moving apartments very soon so the scenery will be changing anyway.
When you put yourself in the game, though, you're telling the audience that at some point you want us to look at you and... it never really comes.
I like the way you put this, and I have to agree. The reason I decided to put my face in the video was to make it feel more personable and like a conversation (rather than an omnipotent voice talking through a computer screen) but when there is no real reason to look at my screen anyway, I can see how it would be distracting.
Hmm I feel like learning to keep the gas low isnt really any of the first "noob tips" that you should give. More like, keep minerals low. If you cant, add more gateways : P
Have a look at day9's "back to basics" that one is really good.
I hear you mention "mental checklist"... And pretty much any noob should be like. Mental checklist? what? Also showing multitasking like that nony building worker in the middle of attack isnt really anything you show to a noob. It will only screw up their play.
Otherwise it's a really good initiative. We need moar of this ;D
I think that could be a fair compromise. Since the picture is smaller, you've cut out the problem areas. It's also easier to see your facial features, so you don't appear mostly as beard/hair. I would say roll with it for now and see how you like it.
Nice video, my suggestion is to tilt you camera down a bit so you eliminate some of the 'whitespace' between the top of your head and the top edge of the viewing area. Your head should not be in the center of the picture, a nicer way of presenting a portrait is having your face in the top half. This makes the camera cover YOU a bit more instead of your background, which is essential to keep focus on you.
As others have said, the background is too light in comparison to your face, I would suggest to get a cheap lamp and direct it towards your face, to get it a little bit more lit. This isn't as much of a problem when you have it in the portrait area, but I reckon you will still move out to full screen from time to time, in which case these points are still valid.
Keep up the good work, greatness doesn't come over night, but good things can. Just look and compare Day9's first and last video and watch the evolution that has happened over 140 episodes. No need to be perfect from the get go.
I watched your video, it was a good intro to important concepts. I'm always on the lookout for info to pass along to friends I want to introduce or improve in Starcraft, so every new source of information is good. Thanks for taking the initiative to make a video and pull some credible replays no less.
Sheets and PVC can make your backdrop. When I've made screens for haunting (Halloween, yeah, it's relevant) I've used table covers from dollar stores. They block light, they are large, and they cost one dollar. I don't know if you have similar venues for supplies in your area, but think about other materials that may work. Construction stores also sell screen material to place under flower beds and gardens to reduce weed growth. These materials block light fairly well and might help. But to be honest, the background was not very distracting. Just seeing the live video feed while a replay was running was the most distracting bit.
I know Day and others play on Low settings to keep the game easy to follow in high stress/clutter moments, but when casting he makes it a point to bump up his settings to increase the visual impact of his streams. I don't know if your computer/ISP can handle the settings, but if you can I would bump up at least to the medium settings. Being visually appealing is important when casting.
Great first cast, I'll be following to see what you do from here. Hopefully you'll be another great source to introduce people to the Starcraft community. Keep going!
Hey man. I enjoyed it. Although most people here are beyond what you are teaching now, your videos could very very very popular at launch! Can't wait for more. I'll be sure to get my noobie friends to watch these
You mentioned "mental checklist", but you didn't really explain spesifically whats in this checklist. You probably heard it on day9's daily, but some people probably don't watch his daily so they don't know whats in this mental checklist. Still really good job, you got good voice thats easy to listening to and everything is explained in an easy and understable way.
This was well done. Excellent example on "oh noes 6 zerglings running towards me...ah-ha, I'm still building a probe!"
Being able to simply execute "very well" what you've covered with just your first video gets you to gold league I think so that's a lot of good stuff in under 10 minutes
Well the idea is great, but with out knowing all aspects and build orders, u can't suggest and telling people how to play the game.... I just turned it off after 2nd part in this video, where u were saying that zerg making mistake and saving a lot of gass....after that u moved to another video.... however, whoever playing against NonY isn't noob, hence he was building 2nd hatch....so, now we turning on our brains and start thinking ok 2 base play, 2 gass on 1st hatch and probably + 1 on expansion + he isn't spending it and whola< we understanding that that guy goes Muta.... Maybe I'm wrong and that 2nd guy is total Noob, so shame on me and the only noob here is me.... glhf =)
I like the inlay at certain periods. Maybe only do it when you are talking about something in depth, if you watch day[9], or if you don't, you should. Take pointers from him, overall very good and always nice to see more people out there taking time out of their day to make SC2 content. Oh yea, and the BS about putting a sheet behind you, ignore that please, this isn't some high quality televised show.
Good work, I enjoyed watching. Wasn't anything I didn't know but it's always good to watch what other peoples take is on tips for the game. I like watching all videos weather it's meant for "noobs" or not you might learn one thing you didn't think about before and if you do you come out ahead. Plus watching fundamentals over and over will ingrain it into your brain and will condition better play in the long run.
I don't know how I feel on the web cam overlay with game play part of me kinda likes it because it makes it personal like you are talking to your audience face to face.
Im kinda curious how you will handle the timing / BO thing in 1 or 2 vids, since that stuff has so much options etc. Will you make it by matchup or just general advice or something?
On June 28 2010 05:45 oopserv wrote: Good stuff. Id like if you could do another vid on more microing. :D
I definitely have plans to do that in the future. For these fundamentals videos I just wanted to show general micro techniques, but in later videos I am going to be showing very specific examples with certain units. Stay tuned.
On June 28 2010 05:56 Baksteen wrote: Nice vids. Always good to see this stuff!
Im kinda curious how you will handle the timing / BO thing in 1 or 2 vids, since that stuff has so much options etc. Will you make it by matchup or just general advice or something?
This one's going to be very tricky, so maybe someone who reads this can give me more ideas. I don't want to really give SPECIFIC timings that a player can use, mostly because the game is still in beta, and there could be any number of changes made to the game that would make them obsolete. Also, while the concept of a timing attack is very apparent and can have huge consequences in a high level game, lower level players (which these videos are targeting) won't have the mechanics down to execute a timing attack.
My idea is to just explain what timing means...I want to teach players that an attack should arrive at a specific time, and not just at random. This could mean anything like attacking once you get a specific upgrade, or just when you have X number of units. The concept of a true "timing attack" isn't as pure at low level play, but I still do think it is relevant.
I dunno, hopefully someone can give me advise on how to convey the idea properly.
On June 28 2010 07:11 TaaiJoeng wrote: Awesome videos! Very informative for beginners. Your videos basically cover everything.
Glad to hear it!
The last and final part of the Fundamentals series will be coming out later tonight....currently rendering and uploading. I definitely want to get suggestions from viewers about ideas or concepts to cover here on out.
On June 23 2010 13:52 Cpt.Nasty wrote: I've been lurking the past few days. Figured I'd make an account to help you out, since I enjoyed your content and like your general idea.
Please change your background. I know it sounds shallow, but presentation is very important. I do biology presentations, and when it comes to posters (I've always found it humorous that I'm presenting my science projects the same way I was back in middle school), they have to be easy on the eyes, or you'll get ignored.
The human eye is drawn toward open white space. There's a significant glare from your window, and it is distracting.
If you absolutely, positively must keep your face in the video, that's the only thing that I would say "needs" to be fixed.
Personally, though, I would do away with the constant video of your face unless you have a very good reason. It adds another thing for my eyes to be distracted by instead of the game.
I don't see why you couldn't keep the video of yourself while the game isn't going on, like towards the end when you start talking about multi tasking. There's nothing else for me to be looking at anyways, so it's fine.
When you put yourself in the game, though, you're telling the audience that at some point you want us to look at you and... it never really comes.
It's not a huge deal, more of a polishing thing. "Why do I want these people to be looking at my face the whole game?"
In the end, if you decide you absolutely, positively, must keep that shot of you in the videos, the glare has to go. And honestly, you'd probably have to do something about your back wall as well if you really want to polish things. The eye, as we said before, is attracted to open, white spaces.
If you remove the glare area from your vid, we still have a huge section of your wall that is light, and draws the eyes away toward the bottom right corner. You also have the disadvantage of having your bed visible, which invites our eyes to try to make sense of the for/back ground, which further distracts from the game.
The reason Day 9's setup works is because he has that poster on the left (black area so your eyes are centered on him). If he didn't have it, our eyes would be drawn to the left of his head, instead of him.
My advice? Remove the video of yourself except when you want to make a big point. This gives you two big advantages. One, it lets people focus on your content. You want to be known as more than just a pretty face, or the guy who puts his face in videos. Two, by waiting to use your mug except when necessary, it allows your points to be more effective, since it creates the illusion of conversation, which isn't the case when you're a tiny little man in the corner of the "big picture."
I think this project shows great promise. Just needs a little polish.
I think this is a better worded criticism than that of YarkO's.
I agree with both of them in that presentation is largely going to affect the overall reception of any video media. Not that your video is going to be televised nationwide, but there are plenty, and I mean PLENTY, of great commentators/teachers when it comes to video lessons. At a certain point, I can venture a guess that content and insight will converge, yet the aspect that will set your video apart from others even minutely, is the presentation.
Take for instance Day[9]'s video pre 101 and post 101. As soon as his video quality, outward appearance, and video angles changed to be more 'professional', I think people found it to be more watchable, though the content is amazing previous to the change. Comparing Day[9] to let say, HD and Husky, the latter two had much better visual quality and 'professional' attributes to their casts that made it more pleasing for people to watch it, hence why I think there are plenty of people that watch HD and Husky over Day[9] despite the gap in knowledge and commentating intelligence between the two (Day[9] having the greater insights of course).
Otherwise, great posts man. As a pretty newbie player, I find this kind of information very interesting and moreover helpful to my play.
On June 23 2010 10:51 yarkO wrote: hang a sheet behind your chair or something. looking into your room isn't cool.
Everybody looks into Day[9]'s room when he is doing his casts - I think it is okay as long as there isn't any poster or anything that people would find offensive.
More good content coming from Trebis. I think this format is for tutorials is just so much better than commentating on an actual match. Great work buddy!
Thanks for making these Trebis, I've just gotten back into SC and re-bought the old sc1 and BW battlechest around two months ago and found a clan to play with (clan eP) but ive found it a little embarrasing to ask for information on these "noobie" topics because there hard to explain without videos (which you've graciously provided). It would be really awsome to see you throw out more info on expansions and how to know when to get naturals and expo's, even with tips on how to properly execute this while micro'ing and continuing to macro at the main would be really cool! I'll be recommending this to my buddies and to anyone else who is wondering how to quickly figure out the basics. Thanks again bro!!
I enjoy these videos being a newer player to the SC scene I feel like I'm taking a good amount of information away from them. And I like the overlay positioning on the unit portrait, what a great idea... :p
Awesome vids man! This is probably gonna be more for the newcomers to the SC franchise and will totally help build their foundation for RTSing.
Some suggestions are to stay very lively and energetic. You like doing this so be excited about helping others :D And always have water nearby! It'll keep the throat moist when you're talking!
Good stuff to watch. Keep up the good work and helping the community overall become better gamers. The more of this we have the better for the game and its players.
Being a old BW player back in 01-03 then turning to FPS and MMOs till SC2 I have a feeling I'll learn a lot from videos such as these and Day9's dailies. Nice job, but yes as yarkO said "hang a sheet behind your chair or something." I think it'll be better for production quality.
This is really good stuff. I feel like everyone touches on stuff for Noobs but there's totally room for someone to do purely dedicated guidance from the ground up.
On June 23 2010 11:46 yarkO wrote: If Day9's room was that bland, and he had a webcam pointed at his bed, and had no posters on his walls (which, by the way, lend credence to the fact that he is a nerd talking about nerd shit in his nerd room. none of this is a bad thing, it just suits him.), then YES, I would totally comment about that.
I'm not complaining about anything. Obviously when you people read the word 'feedback' what you think he wants is endless pats on the back. I'm not knocking him or what he's doing, I'm offering my own opinion and 'feedback', just like he asked.
If you don't agree, that's fine, but why don't you stick to offering your feedback on his programming and not my opinions.
Thanks.
dude.... the only thing day 9 has in his fucking room is a door and a poster that you can only half see. what the FUCK are u talking about? his room is as bland and boring as u can get. but no one gives a flying shit because we dont watch day9 to look at his room, we watch day 9 to watch his awesome dailies.
same with this guy, why would the first and only thing u criticize him on on be about his room? no one is going to watch his vids just to look at his room -_-
Awesome! I kind of do a lot of these things instinctually, but never really realized it at a conscious level, and I think this will definitely improve my game. I especially enjoyed the olord part, bnecause I do scout with them, but not nearly enough, and I do tend to tell them to stay put and not go outside... I'll quit being so paranoid.
I would like to see more special unit highlights ala olord video (except with other units of course), and perhaps a counters video. You talk about scouting, you mention reacting, but you never actually had a video on recommended reactions. I tend to go by the Blizzard-provided units this-vs-that stuff ie strong vs this, weak vs that, etc etc, but it seems too simplistic. Thanks! ~DuncanIdaho
On July 05 2010 14:19 DuncanIdaho wrote: Awesome! I kind of do a lot of these things instinctually, but never really realized it at a conscious level, and I think this will definitely improve my game. I especially enjoyed the olord part, bnecause I do scout with them, but not nearly enough, and I do tend to tell them to stay put and not go outside... I'll quit being so paranoid.
I would like to see more special unit highlights ala olord video (except with other units of course), and perhaps a counters video. You talk about scouting, you mention reacting, but you never actually had a video on recommended reactions. I tend to go by the Blizzard-provided units this-vs-that stuff ie strong vs this, weak vs that, etc etc, but it seems too simplistic. Thanks! ~DuncanIdaho
I have been getting a lot of requests for a "counters" video, but I'm not entirely sure how to pull that off right now. My thoughts are maybe I could do a "Tier 1 counters" video where I at least compare all the tier 1 units to eachother....then future Unit Spotlight videos could show specific counters for the unit being spotlighted.
And then there's the issue of when I'm talking about unit counters, do I take micro into account? For instance: Marauders are great vs zealots when micro'd properly, but are utter garbage against them unmicro'd.
If you have any suggestions about how I could explain counters in a succinct way, I'd love to hear it. Otherwise, I think counter discussion will mostly happen as I finish more unit spotlights.
Well, no rush, I'm loving the highlights at the moment. Perhaps it would be nice to know what units macro well against others, or micro well. And perhaps it would be easier if we reduce things to typical groupings one will encounter. For instance, several zealots with a few sentries is a typical thing to scout and see. Or mass rines, rines and mauraders ( sometimes with medivac((s))...).
I tend to attempt to tech up to something better, but typically I find scouting to be a feeling of, well I see it coming, they'll get here right as the counters are still in production and not quite finished... But sometimes I get lucky and I see their army and have time to tech up. And I realize getting a peek at their army is only one part of scouting, knowing what buildings are out and what xpos they're attempting to grab are also spoils of scouting, but my game tends to lack when i see a mixed group. I can deal with mass anything, given sufficient time to build a mass of the countering unit, but when they mix stuff, I grit my teeth, mix stuff on my own that I think might work, and sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't. And I'm not wanting to know the "Do this and you'll always win" advice, but just recommended counters that work against typical things we'll see, and preferably counters that are reasonable to have made in time (either needing micro or not, of course, though the less micro necessary the better :p ).
For instance, in SC1 I remember if I see a 6 pool going on and I'm terran, I better have a bunker near my mineral line fast, and this works in SC2 as well. Furthermore, this isn't too difficult to put in place, since a barracks should already be up early, and a bunker is quite fast, which can have 1-2 rines in it and be good enough. Another thing I do, is if I am Terran and I see mass zealots, I make a few hellions, and then I micro them, which works wonderfully. I'll have to start making the speed upgrade for lings if I see mass zealots, though perhaps there's a better, more reasonable Zerg counter which can be done faster, given enough larvae... But anywhos, I look forward to your videos, keep up the good work! :D
Nice videos, keep up the good work man. Reminds me of back in the day when I had free time =[
oh also, you may want to just jump right into the action a bit more and less intro chat at the beginning as it causes me to lose focus and start paying attention to other things.
I love you, Trebis, you are teh awesomez! I'll give you all my thumbs and subscriptions I can
I love the idea of the tech xpo, never thought to think of it that way, but you're absolutely right. I always thought I was attack expanding, but that is apparently a class all it's own, and it's helpful to think of it that way...
On July 07 2010 08:45 GreatFall wrote: Nice videos, keep up the good work man. Reminds me of back in the day when I had free time =[
oh also, you may want to just jump right into the action a bit more and less intro chat at the beginning as it causes me to lose focus and start paying attention to other things.
Good Luck!
Perhaps I should put up some cat videos behind my face while I'm talking....might hold people's interest better ;-D This is youtube after all....
On July 07 2010 08:45 GreatFall wrote: Nice videos, keep up the good work man. Reminds me of back in the day when I had free time =[
oh also, you may want to just jump right into the action a bit more and less intro chat at the beginning as it causes me to lose focus and start paying attention to other things.
Good Luck!
Perhaps I should put up some cat videos behind my face while I'm talking....might hold people's interest better ;-D This is youtube after all....
I think your intro is just fine, despite the fact that my wife accuses me of possessing ADHD, with her special education teaching background. :p
However, after all the statistics/probability theory journal articles I have had to read for graduate school, I have the ability to sit through anything. Except church, that puts me to sleep. But you don't, and I enjoy your videos. And please, no cats...
I thought the videos were real informative, even for intermediate players like myself. As an intermediate player they just fine tune what you already know and make you more conscious of certain elements of play as you incorporate it into your games.
As for the argument of the background being your room, I don't see what the big issue is. It's on youtube, not ESPN, and there's no content in it Chris Hansen wouldn't approve of, so I see no issue.
Also, I think you might be on to something here with the cat videos in the background.
A lot of people overlook the Expansion during an attack method. It is by far the safest and most effect method of expanding. The problem with it is if your of an upper caliber by the time your expansion is done you usually have killed your opponent. >.<
Unless your meager expansion-attack-force is meant only to harrass & distract, and has no chance of winning the game outright unless they are just complete noobs...
For example, bling bombing their workers, forcing them to lick their wounds temporarily...
UPDATE: New video covers a very heavily requested topic: Unit Counters. I hope this video can convince you at least a little bit that the concept of a "unit counter" is not as important as many new players think--things like positioning, upgrades, and micro can have a much bigger impact on a battle than any perceived existance of "counter."
Nice video on the Void Ray, though I believe the "fazing" technique was being addressed by Blizzard, either with stopping the insta-damage or the charging on your own buildings. We'll have to wait and see, I suppose.
I feel like if you look at fazing by itself on paper it may look overpowered, but when you consider that it takes truly 100% of your focus, it may not be so bad. I am surprised though that we haven't seen top pros using this tactic (I'm talking to you, White-rA.) Is there a significant down side other than the attention it takes?
Before I watch all these videos, will they help a complete noob? Im only asking because I have been looking for some informative information for a complete noob. I've never played a game of SC in my life, but I enjoy the concept and actually think with some practice and informative info its probably something I may excel at. When I watch people playing, I get the general concept of whats going on(kinda) but half the time I have no idea where things are coming from, how people are moving units to certain areas, hot-keys, macro, micro and just about everything. I realize as a noob this is to be expected, but does all this stuff come natural after a while of practicing. I guess what I am trying to ask is for someone who never played SC before, is this game easy to pick up and learn the basics(pretty much everything besides the strategy part of it)? I play chess and other things so I know the strategic part of it will come to me after a while but I am more concerned about the mechanics as of now.
Or at the very least, can you direct me to something that may help me. I realize its kinda hard without being able to play yet, but perhaps there are some on line resources I can benefit from in the meantime.
Well to be honest I think the most important thing you need to do is to play the game! My videos will definitely help, but you can't really expect to learn to play without getting down and dirty and letting your fingers learn the game before you even worry about strategy. Playing through the single player campaign would be a great way to get familiar without the pressure of an online game.
On July 24 2010 10:31 Trebis wrote: Well to be honest I think the most important thing you need to do is to play the game! My videos will definitely help, but you can't really expect to learn to play without getting down and dirty and letting your fingers learn the game before you even worry about strategy. Playing through the single player campaign would be a great way to get familiar without the pressure of an online game.
Ok, pretty much what I had expected. I'm a hands on person anyhow. I will check out your videos though, as it seems to be geared as to what I was looking for. I definitely will be starting out with the campaign before I play online. Anything less, and I would set myself up for failure.Thanks dude.
On July 24 2010 09:11 Trebis wrote: I feel like if you look at fazing by itself on paper it may look overpowered, but when you consider that it takes truly 100% of your focus, it may not be so bad. I am surprised though that we haven't seen top pros using this tactic (I'm talking to you, White-rA.) Is there a significant down side other than the attention it takes?
Misclick and you could be sending your Void Ray straight into incoming firepower (say, marines or Hydras one row deeper). In addition, if the opponent has seen it before, he can move a few units up and down a bit or rotate badly injured units out, and you'll need to make sure your Void doesn't chase.
Edit: This worry is mitigated a bit if you charge up beforehand, of course.
ShabbySalami, I was the president of the chess club for a time at Texas Tech University (back when I was an undergrad), and I must say, as a chess player, you'll likely enjoy SC2, and once you're able to get past the idea of not necessarily knowing everything that's going on on the board (think chess, but with a fog of war covering the opponent's pieces, yet with foggy sillouettes happening at times to give you glimpses of where the enemy is and with what pieces...). I find the strategies on TL.net in general to be quite informative, and Trebis helps to condense a lot of what is said on here into nice, neat little packaged videos. My advice, like Trebis, would be to play the game, learn the hotkeys and shortcuts, use your shift, backspace, and ctrl keys, and you'll excel.
As for the fazing, my bet is it will be nerfed eventually, but who knows, perhaps it is arguably micro-intensive, and Blizzard doesn't hide the fact that micro always helps. And in any case, it works at the moment, so keep it as a tool in your repertoire.
On June 23 2010 12:08 yarkO wrote: I'm almost 24. I realize English may not be your first language, but simple math is universal. Figure it out.
..............GG................
We have a winnar! Lol, nice...
Anyway keep up the good work, although I know most of this stuff I'm sure theres a ton of new players that could get a lot out of your videos.
The people complaining about your room are pathetic because day[9] has a door and two posters on his webcam. So what. This aint CNN, you don't need frikin back drops. Lol.
Just to comment on the VR: Just looking at its mechanics, it's pretty awesome. The charge ability is cool and makes for a unique unit, but I feel like it has some problems...
Imo the model isn't that good looking, but that's just my opinion.
The problem is, imo, that the VR benefits from such things as shooting your own buildings or even units before attacking. I realize this gives room for some pretty epic micro potential and lets the player decide whether he wants to maximize the VR's firepower at the cost of losing HP on a unit or building. Looking at it that way, it's kinda cool. However, I do think it's just too odd of a mechanic to have a place in a game like this. It's not that it's supposed to be realistic (if you can even operate with a term like that in a sci-fi game), but it's still a bit silly to hit your own structures and units before a balttle to charge your cannons. Multiplayer is not all about lore, cool units and 'logic', but it's a bit too wacky for my taste. Perhaps I would categorize fazing as a wacky move as well.
Do you guys agree? I'm not saying either way, but that's just how I look at it
On July 25 2010 08:14 Jenslyn87 wrote: Just to comment on the VR: Just looking at its mechanics, it's pretty awesome. The charge ability is cool and makes for a unique unit, but I feel like it has some problems...
Imo the model isn't that good looking, but that's just my opinion.
The problem is, imo, that the VR benefits from such things as shooting your own buildings or even units before attacking. I realize this gives room for some pretty epic micro potential and lets the player decide whether he wants to maximize the VR's firepower at the cost of losing HP on a unit or building. Looking at it that way, it's kinda cool. However, I do think it's just too odd of a mechanic to have a place in a game like this. It's not that it's supposed to be realistic (if you can even operate with a term like that in a sci-fi game), but it's still a bit silly to hit your own structures and units before a balttle to charge your cannons. Multiplayer is not all about lore, cool units and 'logic', but it's a bit too wacky for my taste. Perhaps I would categorize fazing as a wacky move as well.
Do you guys agree? I'm not saying either way, but that's just how I look at it
I have to disagree. A lot of what I enjoy (and what I think makes a game a great competitive game) are the small intricacies and sometimes "bugs" that bring gameplay to an even higher level. There are plenty of parallels you could draw to BW of things that initially looked like bugs, but became core pieces of high level play. Barring anything that's obviously overpowered, I am actually a fan of keeping things like this in the game!
I agree and disagree with you, Trebis. I'm with you 100% on 'bugs' becoming exciting game mechanics. That being said, I don't like it where 'bugs' make the game look silly, or go against the 'desired simulation'.
In the case of VRs, having them 'phase' goes against what they're supposed to be. They target 1 thing, charge up, and do more and more damage. They aren't supposed to jump madly between targets.
I think VRs charging on pylons, rocks, Mengsk statues (etc) is a 'bug' that is great for gameplay and for the feel of the game.
Speaking as a complete "noob" this didn't help me as much as it looked like it would, because there wasn't enough info about the exact keys you are pressing and what you are clicking.
So I look at the scene where the void rays shoot each other for a sec to keep charged and i'm thinking, if I right click them on each other they'll just follow each other instead of shooting each other right? If this is for complete beginners, you might have to spell it out incredibly simply, a la "Starcraft for Dummies" style.
Thanks for the effort on this project though, i'm sure it will be much appreciated by "noobs" everywhere. And no I don't care about the state of the room you are casting from if my void ray skills improve!
On July 26 2010 06:19 - Praetorian - wrote: Speaking as a complete "noob" this didn't help me as much as it looked like it would, because there wasn't enough info about the exact keys you are pressing and what you are clicking.
So I look at the scene where the void rays shoot each other for a sec to keep charged and i'm thinking, if I right click them on each other they'll just follow each other instead of shooting each other right? If this is for complete beginners, you might have to spell it out incredibly simply, a la "Starcraft for Dummies" style.
Thanks for the effort on this project though, i'm sure it will be much appreciated by "noobs" everywhere. And no I don't care about the state of the room you are casting from if my void ray skills improve!
there is a difference between noobs and complete imbeciles
there is a difference between noobs and complete imbeciles
do little work yourself
I'm not an imbecile i'd like to think i'm fairly intelligent, was gold league before SC2 beta went down and played SC1 quite a lot. Just didn't get how some of the things were done at first without knowing what was clicked / pressed, and I think it took something away from the idea of instant help to "noobs".
there is a difference between noobs and complete imbeciles
do little work yourself
I'm not an imbecile i'd like to think i'm fairly intelligent, was gold league before SC2 beta went down and played SC1 quite a lot. Just didn't get how some of the things were done at first without knowing what was clicked / pressed, and I think it took something away from the idea of instant help to "noobs".
While I do try to stay as newbie friendly as possible, I am definitely not trying to teach to the ULTIMATE newbie--quite honestly, I wouldn't have fun at all teaching people the difference between attacking, moving, and attack-moving. Similarly, I choose to assume that most of my audience knows how to attack their own units. The type of person I try to target with my videos is someone who has all the mechanics of the game under their fingers, and is just looking to figure out how to optimize their play to take it to the next level. When the game releases, I'd imagine this is a person who has completed the single player campaign, but has struggled to find their way up the ladder in 1v1.
I had an idea for some future episodes in your series. Perhaps it would be helpful to the audience to go over the beauties of the macro-made <shift> key, for queuing multiple buildings (e.g., photon cannons, supply depots, etc.), using it for multi-location patrolling, queuing up an ability along the path (e.g. blink as each unit in a squadron approaches a location on a cliff, roaches unburrowing once they reach the mineral line, maybe even raven seeker missles if that's possible, etc.)
I've just recently discovered this mechanic after watching some videos you reccommended in the comments of one of your previous videos, and I feel after playing against the AI a few times while the beta is down, that it's greatly improved my game. Also, you may have covered this already, or maybe I'm remembering another video, but if you haven't, if you had any suggestions on macro with terran since the <tab> key has been nerfed.
It's whatever, I mean, don't feel like you have to do what I suggested, but I thought these topics might make for good instruction.
On July 26 2010 06:19 - Praetorian - wrote: Speaking as a complete "noob" this didn't help me as much as it looked like it would, because there wasn't enough info about the exact keys you are pressing and what you are clicking.
So I look at the scene where the void rays shoot each other for a sec to keep charged and i'm thinking, if I right click them on each other they'll just follow each other instead of shooting each other right? If this is for complete beginners, you might have to spell it out incredibly simply, a la "Starcraft for Dummies" style.
Thanks for the effort on this project though, i'm sure it will be much appreciated by "noobs" everywhere. And no I don't care about the state of the room you are casting from if my void ray skills improve!
Hotkey your void rays. Say 4 for example.
Click 4 a, then click on one of your void rays, then do the other one. They will now be attacking each other. Press 4 m, click direction you want to move.
P.S. To be fair, if you can't do the void rays attacking each other. You shouldn't really be getting void rays intill you are better. Void rays are quite micro intensive. Also, you would have to practice the timing.
Hi, I watched all your vids and really enjoyed them! Oh yeah and to all the haters complaining about your bedroom, that is insane, most important thing is the content, which I think is REALLY well done and obv a lot of effort was put into it ... anyway... I'm from another RTS, did not play the beta, and SC2 is very interesting, the game mechanics are both exciting and intuitive. I had a couple noob questions, I wonder if you could help me?
1. As zerg, is there a faster way to select larvae than clicking on their images on the minimap? Like a hotkey for existing larvae or a way to preselect the morphs of future larvae?
2. Is there a hotkey or way to find idle military? Or a way to cycle through my military, and find them?
3. Is there a "bring all military units here" command/hotkey?
4. What's the best way to make my peons attack an enemy unit? They seem to be really reluctant to do this, should I select a small number at a time, shift-click them through the opposition (harder to do vs something like zerglings)?
5. Currently is there a spreadsheet that DIRECTLY COMPARES unit stats? There are lots of unit stats found online but I have been working on my own spreadsheet that does direct unit costs, one-hit calculations, etc; however I know someone else will do something tidier and more informative, is it out yet? Hah.
On July 06 2010 06:38 DuncanIdaho wrote: I tend to attempt to tech up to something better, but typically I find scouting to be a feeling of, well I see it coming, they'll get here right as the counters are still in production and not quite finished... But sometimes I get lucky and I see their army and have time to tech up. And I realize getting a peek at their army is only one part of scouting, knowing what buildings are out and what xpos they're attempting to grab are also spoils of scouting, but my game tends to lack when i see a mixed group. I can deal with mass anything, given sufficient time to build a mass of the countering unit, but when they mix stuff, I grit my teeth, mix stuff on my own that I think might work, and sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't. And I'm not wanting to know the "Do this and you'll always win" advice, but just recommended counters that work against typical things we'll see, and preferably counters that are reasonable to have made in time (either needing micro or not, of course, though the less micro necessary the better :p ).
This is a pretty common problem for new and even intermediate players. What you'll get better at in time will be already having what you need when he brings out his new unit. Rarely if ever do you scout a literal unit of his and then build counters (though you might build more)... by this time it is too late, you've officially been surprised. What you're looking for is early signs of it. You might scout his lack of units (indicating he is teching). You might scout an expansion (indicating his tech will be delayed). When you see something like this, you begin to prepare. For example, if I see a zerg player with spines at his natural, but few units, I make sure I have appropriate tech to deal with muta. Even without scouting muta directly. You get a feel for the timings "ok, he should be finishing his lair about now" and prepare accordingly. The idea of "building counters" is so crazy flawed from the get-go... Yes, you need to have certain units to hold off certain attacks, but if he knows you are going to build the counter to his unit, then he will build the counter to yours, and you will build the counter to that... on and on, meaning nothing really counters anything.
Mixed armies (which result from above scenario) are all about management. If your immortals fight his tanks, and collossus fight his marines, you are going to do unimaginably better than if your immortals fight his marines and your collossus fights his tanks. Tactics, and applying these units correctly is the most important things. The same army can obliterate or be obliterated. So while it's important to have a good composition (note, not a counter-composition), focus on how you apply your units and you will see big gains.
I'd like to see some noob-friendly shows about how to break out of bronze (that's even a good name, eh?). For example, a friend of mine who just got the game was complaining to me about getting destroyed by Void Rays. I remember my first online games and getting the same type of feeling.
I know that it isn't easy or even a good idea to talk about specific anti-VR strats, for example, but since a number of people are likely to run into this, having something for them to grab onto might really help them out. Illustrating the value of good scouting, strong macro, early pushes, etc can give that mental boost to overcome the frustration of going down to a bunch of VRs early in your online career.
Other ideas (and perhaps related) would be a couple of basic builds for people to work on. I've found that a 3 or 4 rax build is a good general opening because 1) it's simple: just focus on marines and marauders, with a couple basic upgrades 2) can handle a lot of stuff fairly easily, especially if you build enough SCV to support 4 rax. Once you get in the habit of really overproducing scv (not actually overproducing but it feels like it to a noob), you'll see that your economy is surpassing even 4 raxes and you can start with second tier, etc. At least for me, this approach really helped me up my terran game, and I'm sure there are similar builds for toss and zerg (2-3 gate and roaches, maybe?) that allow people to focus on basic (drones & lowmoney) while still being able to handle a lot of what other people will through at them.
My next video, this time in a new segment I'm calling the "Micro Lab" we talk about an important micro technique. This will show you how to turn an even battle into a solid win: Fleeing the Weak. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNnsSprNHbs
It would be awesome to get walked through some of the newer maps in the pool. Nothing compares to practise obviously, but I feel like I've seen so many matches on LT, ST, BS etc. that I just know them, without even laddering that much. All the newer maps in the pool however, are a different story - only realise they even exist when I'm playing someone, and haven't seen a blatant back-door, or something equally stupid.
It's a shame that folks aren't on this thread so much any more. I guess now everyone actually has the game they're focused on practise. I personally like to take some time to reflect after getting owned ;-)
Let's get some more ideas together fellow noobs!!!
Oh lord, Please don't teach anymore new terran players how to build 3 barracks and how to press a,a,a,a,a,a,a,a,a,a,a,a,a,a,a,a,a,a,a,a,a,a,a,a,a,a. then 1a
I don't think we can fit anymore 6 year-olds in platinum right now.
Awsome to see your still keeping at the vids Trebis, I'll be checking them all out later, keep up the great work bro! Also I thought I'd add that anyone who says you should do this or that with regards to blocking site of your room should just be ignored, personally i dont give a shit if we can see your room, everyone gets to see Day's winny the pooh drawing on his wall and doesnt say anything dumb like "take it down its not starcraft related".
On August 14 2010 09:22 Mantikor wrote: Oh lord, Please don't teach anymore new terran players how to build 3 barracks and how to press a,a,a,a,a,a,a,a,a,a,a,a,a,a,a,a,a,a,a,a,a,a,a,a,a,a. then 1a
I don't think we can fit anymore 6 year-olds in platinum right now.
Good thing for the first commandment of noob schoolage: Thou Shalt Not Teach Cheese.
Good idea, I will forward this to my n00by friends for sure, it's always hard finding good resources for people that introduce them to advanced/intermediate concepts without linking them to the TLO forums and having them get overwhelmed.
Episode idea (post idea): creating some kind of chart/reference for what scouting means (IE early gas scout terran could be marauders, or reaper rush, or tech build, but rules out mass marines; or pool already under construction when you send your 9 scout = get ready to be rushed)
I find that most beginner/intermediate players will scout, but then don't know what it means, I bet you could cover a lot of possibilities pretty quickly.
Episode idea (post idea): creating some kind of chart/reference for what scouting means (IE early gas scout terran could be marauders, or reaper rush, or tech build, but rules out mass marines; or pool already under construction when you send your 9 scout = get ready to be rushed)
^This.
If I even bother scouting, the most information I can acquire is: - he is over there - he is walled-off - he's fast expanding - he has x Raxes
That's pretty much it. Not going to guess if reapers/mass marauders/hellions are coming just from scouting with like 10th worker.
Episode idea (post idea): creating some kind of chart/reference for what scouting means (IE early gas scout terran could be marauders, or reaper rush, or tech build, but rules out mass marines; or pool already under construction when you send your 9 scout = get ready to be rushed)
^This.
If I even bother scouting, the most information I can acquire is: - he is over there - he is walled-off - he's fast expanding - he has x Raxes
That's pretty much it. Not going to guess if reapers/mass marauders/hellions are coming just from scouting with like 10th worker.
So, are you saying not to scout?! First, on a multiple spawn location map, "he's over there" is vital. Second, knowing he/she's walled off (especially vital as zerg, as this is the deciding factor on whther to drop a bling nest), fast expanding, has x many raxes/gateways/how soon the pool goes up/is he getting fast gas/any early tech are also vital. Furthermore, especially against random, you'll at least know what race you're up against. Another idea, against terran, harrassing the scv building a rax is useful, and potentially a gas steal to hamper them while seeing their worker count is nice. Finally, this is the safest time for a worker to infiltrate for intel, as later they are quickly off'ed by t1 units.
Anyone who doesn't scout, is also sending a message: "I'm either a noob (but if you're high level, I'm probably not and thus the next alternative is true), or I intend to rush you, and allow my rush to serve as the scouts."
So, long story short, despite the limited info, scouting early is very useful. Of course, too many players scout once, and never bother to scout again until it's too late. Continuous scouting is a must, for gathering intel. (I'd suggest scouting with something other than workers later on, such as a fast moving unit or observer/changling/scan.)
New video is up--this time, I just want your feedback! I have covered a lot of the basics in my fundamentals series, and am wanting to know in what direction I should take my videos for the future. Let me know in the comments or in this thread.
I'd like to see a unit spotlight on the psionic units which require micro, preferably the infestor (as I'm a zerg hehe), but I can see the ghost, raven, maaaybe queen, and high templar and sentry. Of course, the units like the phoenix and corrupter which have abilities but are not exactly a pure support unit, might be worthy of a unit spotlight as well.
Edit: Maybe you could also attempt to extend the back to basics thread to both zerg and protoss... :/
Also, I've been having some trouble as Zerg against the terran bio ball. Now I know, counters don't exist! But still, I've been somewhat troubled. I've found that muta/ling/bling tends to be useful (though I really should try to throw in infestors yet haven't perfected the ability yet), although it's been my experience, that even with bling speed upgrade, they seem to fall if the terran micros really well. I'll try to find my replay where i knew I had his bio ball, but somehow masses of blings were destroyed and barely scratched his marines... I think my problem there was inadequate micro on my part, but still some guidance might be beneficial.
In any case, I love your videos, and I look forward to updates in this thread and on my youtube subscription to you.
Okay okay okay, so the thing I was wanting to say with the unit counters video is that unit counters are not the hard set in stone RULES of the game like some people like to treat them. It's definitely true that some units are better against other units, but the idea that "If they have X, you should make Y" just ignores so many other aspects of the game.
That said, against a bio ball if you are planning on using banelings, the infestor will make your baneling's job 100x easier--one good fungal growth will leave the entire ball nicely clumped up and unable to micro against your banelings. Definitely throw some infestors in to your play and let me know how it works out. Fungal growth is an amazing ability
I was wanting to request a Phoenix vs Muta micro tutorial. Apparently I'm to noob to learn it on my own, and I havent been able to find any vids breaking it down for me.
Thx and I hope you continue to have success with your tutorials.
On September 06 2010 12:40 Joedaddy wrote: I was wanting to request a Phoenix vs Muta micro tutorial. Apparently I'm to noob to learn it on my own, and I havent been able to find any vids breaking it down for me.
Thx and I hope you continue to have success with your tutorials.
The thing is they have the moving shot, and I want to say a farther range than mutas. Just keep backing them up while keeping them in range, and the mutas would be stupid to chase you. I rarely make mutas in ZvP, favoring hydras instead, since they're cheaper and great dps for taking down all those meaty protoss units.
Edit: And Trebis, I've been forcing myself to micro those infestors, and so far they work quite well! It seems as if this is like the toss tstorm. I mean, it seems to have a damage component, perhaps less than the toss storm, of course, but it has the added bonus of it stopping them from attacking, making a nice close-in quite useful. I guess I've just been more of a macro player, and micro has always been my bane, thus my propensity for not even bothering to make the micro-intensive infestor.
very good work, your videos have been very helpful to me.
umm, just one question: how do I manually install those trainingmaps? I downloaded a map for training macro and micro at the same time and I really cannot figure out how to get it in the right folder(s).
I think all you are doing is great, really instructive.
I sent you a pm.
I know you will not be able to explain the whole game mechanics in a very detailed way since you can writed about thousands of books regarding this game. Still you do an excellent job trying to explain as much as possible abot the mechanics. Thank you very much for your time in helping other ppl.
You know, I've been watching your stuff since beta, and I must say I've been incorporating your advice (and others, such as Day9 and HD), and I'm now a top platinum zerg 1700-ish, hopefully diamond soon. However, you never cease to amaze. It never occured to me to do the 'X' hotkey while burrowed. I just never thought to try it. Sure, I knew about the auto unburrow right-click thing, but that was definitely useful to know. Furthermore, I always knew bling speed was cool, but I never knew the comparitive speeds. However, one thing you forgot to do, was stim vs the centrifugal hooks off creep. I want to say the marine is faster? If not that is definitely awesome to know, but I guess I'll check out the unit tester to see...
In any case, ty again, and gj Trebis! ~Duncan Idaho
Well, I haven't updated this thread in a long while, but I guess it's about time.
My latest video focuses on the bane of all Zerg's existance ZvT on Lost Temple: The dreaded THOR DROP!
You people have no idea how difficult it was for me to sit and watch zergs get thor dropped for hours at a time. Honestly one of the most depressing things I've ever done....
Oh, and I'm gonna actually update the front page of this thread again--hooray!
EPT![[image loading]](http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4073/4821881136_2eff21ce02.jpg)
1700-ish, hopefully diamond soon. However, you never cease to amaze. It never occured to me to do the 'X' hotkey while burrowed. I just never thought to try it. Sure, I knew about the auto unburrow right-click thing, but that was definitely useful to know. Furthermore, I always knew bling speed was cool, but I never knew the comparitive speeds. However, one thing you forgot to do, was stim vs the centrifugal hooks off creep. I want to say the marine is faster? If not that is definitely awesome to know, but I guess I'll check out the unit tester to see...
