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Current State of Early Game Zerg - Page 2

Forum Index > SC2 General
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Nilanth
Profile Joined August 2010
United States5 Posts
August 13 2010 08:17 GMT
#21
my problem with saccing overlords for scouting is it starts to ruin my larva rotation. . . a few larva can be the difference between win and lose.
Headshot
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
United States1656 Posts
August 13 2010 08:19 GMT
#22
On August 13 2010 14:09 Ghin wrote:and by "Top Zerg players" you must mean idra.

Did you not see Sheth's writeup?
-
Yttrasil
Profile Joined April 2010
Sweden651 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-08-13 12:16:11
August 13 2010 12:09 GMT
#23
Yeah there is something, lower queen build time is ok. Another problem I have is with the spore crawlers, they do suck donkey! Compare the cost and effectiveness to a turret(arn't turrets abit too good these days?), it's pretty insane I think. Would like the range at least to be abit longer so you don't need three of them to defend against 1 banshee cloaked or not. I on the other hand think we need another unit, maybe that's built in the hatchery.

An example of a unit that would be cool and solve some issues for me and also very fun. It should be built from the hatchery after you get for example roach warren(with some extra features also), cost 50/50(be 1 supply!!) or 25/75 be something like a weaker roach(give some plus vs armoured?) but with some weakish anti air also to help your queens in need maybe also with that you should be able to use the queens energy(25 or so) to queue up more than 1 at the same time from the hatchery if you want to build them faster plus it's a way to neglect you missing the inject larva from time to time. Also maybe have an ability to move while burrowed which you get automatically to be able to scout people. Maybe even give it an ability to dig under cliffs(both the burrow and under cliff thing for another 50/50 maybe or just for free?). Now that would be a fun not overpowered unit that will help you somewhat against tough banshee/void ray rushes if you have some spare energy on a queen also help you get rid of all the excess energy on a queen. Would be really cool to use it late game as a unit to mass when you have so many queens with full energy and as it only takes 1 supply also an option not having to rush to hydra every game IF fast banshee or voidray are coming to get any kind of mobile anti air before that. Just a stupid suggestion for a unit that would add diversity to the bland boring zerg race, it would really open up for at least some kind of different plays at the start as zerg and not force us to go always the same path. Any opinions?
Meh
Velr
Profile Blog Joined July 2008
Switzerland10877 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-08-13 12:23:44
August 13 2010 12:18 GMT
#24
The only thing that makes Zerg boring is the need for the quick T2 tech.

With roaches/speedling you could hold of really lots of stuff... It's just.. Oh, he has 1 Air-Unit... Even if i have enough Units and Creepspread to fend everything off with spedlings and slow banelings/roaches, i can never ever leave my base until i get Hydras.


Yeah, you can try to scout it.. Good luck with that, they both can build everywhere they fucking want and whiteout overlordspeed your not even sure to see anything.

Why can a Toss 4 Gate and be save from everything?
Why can a Terran just mass MM and be save from everything?
Zerg just needs the abilitie to produce Hydras just "in case" the enemy decides to build a flying unit because else it's not just a harass unit, it's a unit of insta-gg.
tacrats
Profile Joined July 2010
476 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-08-13 12:25:45
August 13 2010 12:20 GMT
#25
On August 13 2010 21:18 Velr wrote:
The only thing that makes Zerg boring is the need fort he T2 tech.

With roaches/speedling you could hold of really lots of stuff... It's just.. Oh, he has 1 Air-Unit... Even if i have enough creep to fend it off, i can never leave my base until i got some Hydras.


its not really the air that sucks, its the cloaked banshees. staying at t1 would get you raped by them.

give overlords detection back. remove overseers from the game or make them upgrade for 50/50 ands till have changling and contaminate. The overseer is just ANOTHER thing zerg has spend a crapload of gas on once he finally hits t2.
f0rk
Profile Joined March 2010
England172 Posts
August 13 2010 12:28 GMT
#26
Make infestors t1, would make openings much more varied.
TerranHater
Profile Joined August 2010
18 Posts
August 13 2010 12:30 GMT
#27
Why is everyone saying using SCAN is almost as equivalent as sacking overlord?
it's not seriously

Scan
-How much time does it take to use it? Prolly 1 second or less
-Do you lose food over it? NO
-Is it guaranteed scouting? YES, meaning you WILL mostly likely see what your opponent is doing
-Do you REALLY lose mineral? NO, since you use your energy to use it and it doesn't come directly out of the mineral you currently have

Overlord
-How much time does it take for the overlord to get to the opponent's base? ohhh i don't know... but by the time you get there, it'll prolly die cuz of marine. If P, then no. Later by stalker
-Do you lose food over it? Hell yea
-Is it guaranteed scouting? NO, cuz marine can sack that thing before it even touches the edge of the base
-Do you REALLY lose mineral? yes you dumb bitch, you take exactly 100 mineral directly from my mineral and press s and v to make that shit. and if sacked, then i have to make another one
sowosamma
Profile Joined May 2010
Germany8 Posts
August 13 2010 12:36 GMT
#28
i like the idea of just increasing the damage done by queens a little bit (say 2x6 vs ground and 15 vs air).then reduce the morphing time of the overseer down to 10 and the zerg should feel better early game (against air and e.g reapers).to outweigh that,one could reduce the amount healed by transfusion to,say,80.would that be a viable idea?
jabberwokie
Profile Joined September 2009
Canada142 Posts
August 13 2010 12:42 GMT
#29
Zerg are just too frail for their massability this is the key zerg dynamic and I believe this would be the key to a succesfull solution to current balance issues. We either need more bite or more durability. It's not like zerg weren't top dog not that long ago. we know how to take it in the other direction we just have to find a middle ground.

ling -> ling, hydra -> ling, hydra, infestor -> ling, hydra, infestor, broodlord > The rest
get 3 bases!
Roggay
Profile Joined April 2010
Switzerland6320 Posts
August 13 2010 12:43 GMT
#30
Imo the biggest issue is the map pool, I hate most of the map actually on ladder as zerg (like the 2 new , hard to defend natural).

Early game is fine for me, my biggest problem is mid-game push with Collossi or HTs for P and some other terran pushes. If the P push with Collossi your hydras will get raped and you need air (and even with air it's hard to hold) or ultras (who take a lot of time and ressource to get), HTs are a problem too. In general I think Z lack something to defend against those units.
Latham
Profile Blog Joined May 2007
9576 Posts
August 13 2010 12:43 GMT
#31
Burrow @ T1 is a bad idea. Imagine zvz... burrowed bling landmine @ T1? Are you sure you want that?

Decrease burrow build time and cost to 50/50. Revert Overlord speed back to 100/100. Make Lair not build for 80 fucking seconds, 60 or 40 plz. Give roaches 2 starting armor but stay with the 2 food crap or make them have the speed upgrade from the get-go. Maybe make roaches upgrades cheaper. Maybe decrease queen build time.
Remove the "Light" armor type from the hydralisk. Make them only Biological, so hellions won't rape them any way they want.
Remove the "Armoured" armour type from the Spine Crawler, leaving them only with Structure and biological, so we'll be able to defend against maras and stalkers early pushes.

Right now, once you hit Lair, you have to waste so many fucking resources on upgrades it's ridiculous. If you commit to burrowed roaches, you won't have anything to fall back on since you just wasted 100/100(speed) + 100/100 (burrow) + 150/150 (burrow move) + 200/200 (overlord speed) and god knows how much more on overseers etc. just to have a shot at defending a midgame push -.-
For the curse of life is the curse of want. PC = https://be.pcpartpicker.com/user/LathamTK/builds/#view=CrqmP6
Phrencys
Profile Joined August 2010
Canada270 Posts
August 13 2010 12:52 GMT
#32
@TerranHater: Scan costs 270 minerals, because then you're not MULEing.

Most terran MULE, especially vs zerg since it's basically impossible to wall-in for zerg until you get lings/roachs, so terran can just sac an SCV or marine to scout freely.

On the topic of zerg early game, what I would like to see is not necessarily a decrease in queen's build time, but perhaps make queen available without a spawning pool (like protoss don't need a gateway to chrono boost).

Being able to build a queen sooner would allow more diverse builds since it would certainly be viable to queen+pool at like 12 drones instead of systematically going FE because zerg can't afford to tech/crank enough of their weaksauce units with 1base.
Melt
Profile Joined May 2010
Switzerland281 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-08-13 13:04:14
August 13 2010 13:01 GMT
#33
Just build 3 Queens as standard, voilà... you have a nice defense against air rushes.
If the opponent goes heavy air (void or banshee) i find that Infestors counter air much better than Hydras, especially because they can attack cloaked Banshees (Fungal Growth) and stop any air from just dodging your ground forces. They will also often be able to stop Voidrays from keeping up their charged beams when you fungal them correctly.

And concerning the scouting abilitys; position your Overlords proberly, position your Zerglings properly and hold the Xelnaga Towers. The problem is, that this only work on big Maps, because you can still build some units if you see them move out.

The thing that's imba with Zerg is the inability to withstand a Mechball or Tossball, even if you scouted it, without loosing too much economy. It's just a balancing act and if you estimated incorrectly, you will be dead. It doesn't matter whether you droned up too much or made too much army. Especially against Terran, you won't be able to counter attack if you have much of an army left, cuz of their insane turtle power.
Anything but the exact balance will loose you the game and getting that balance is often depending on instinct.
Tazza
Profile Blog Joined May 2009
Korea (South)1678 Posts
August 13 2010 13:06 GMT
#34
I agree that zerg scouting is horrible, but its NOT the early air that hurts. Zerg can hold off air with 1 or 2 extra queens. What really hurts is that zerg cannot pressure early game unless its a 6pool. Zerg has to sit and wait for reapers/helions/thordrops/2gate. I think the idea of 2 roaches in an egg is a good idea. It would hold these rushes off an perhaps even give zerg a way to pressure. Also, it would be good for lategame as zerg wouldn't have such a small army
eivind
Profile Joined July 2010
111 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-08-13 15:06:34
August 13 2010 15:03 GMT
#35
On August 13 2010 16:38 Swede wrote:
If you're not scouting in a similar fashion to this then that is the reason you're failing:



Whow you are a genious! Now I can scout everything with slow moving OLs!

Well except ANY player that actually places supply depots / pylons around his base. Any decent Terran player should stop OLs from scouting anything vital by just building the base correctly. Especially on maps with large starting areas.
Azile
Profile Joined March 2010
United States339 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-08-13 15:25:25
August 13 2010 15:25 GMT
#36
On August 13 2010 21:52 Phrencys wrote:
@TerranHater: Scan costs 270 minerals, because then you're not MULEing.


You seem confused as to what 'cost' means. You are making a choice when scanning between scouting and receiving 270 minerals over a period of time. It doesn't cost you anything. At no point in the game will you ever say "well shit i'd like to scan right now but I can't cause I only have 50 minerals".
tacrats
Profile Joined July 2010
476 Posts
August 13 2010 15:25 GMT
#37
On August 13 2010 21:52 Phrencys wrote:
@TerranHater: Scan costs 270 minerals, because then you're not MULEing.


false.
Bair
Profile Joined May 2010
United States698 Posts
August 13 2010 15:59 GMT
#38
Make mutas 50/50 and one food. Move to tier one, cut spire build time in half. Leave everything else as is.
In Roaches I Rust.
Nyth
Profile Joined March 2010
Netherlands19 Posts
August 13 2010 16:23 GMT
#39
The thing is (which was mentioned by the OP as well) is that it's not that Zerg scouting is really bad. It's that zerg scouting is insufficient for the reactive role you play as zerg.

The zerg in SC2 have a very reactive playstyle. And especially in the early early game taking the wrong route as zerg can be extremely punishing. Much more so than with T or P.
oxxo
Profile Joined February 2010
988 Posts
August 13 2010 16:24 GMT
#40
On August 14 2010 00:25 Azile wrote:
Show nested quote +
On August 13 2010 21:52 Phrencys wrote:
@TerranHater: Scan costs 270 minerals, because then you're not MULEing.


You seem confused as to what 'cost' means. You are making a choice when scanning between scouting and receiving 270 minerals over a period of time. It doesn't cost you anything. At no point in the game will you ever say "well shit i'd like to scan right now but I can't cause I only have 50 minerals".


I don't know if most Z are in denial or just don't understand economics or what.

Scan costs:
270 minerals over time OPPORTUNITY COST. It COSTS minerals. There is no way to say otherwise.
OR
100 minerals + mining time of 1 scv immediate OPPORTUNITY COST. It COSTS minerals.

Sac your overlords. T is already doing it with scans.

Play both sides and you'd understand.

When I get Z I sac plenty of overlords. Just like I sac plenty of mules/supply drops to get info.
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