I found a couple of tricks with Starcraft's pathfinding (probably I'm not first but anyway ^_^). They allows you to:

- sneaky check opponents location and expansion
- in some circumstance know about destructible rocks fall

updates

- you can use any unit (not only worker) to do any of this
- "closed areas" include walled-in Terran's base, so you can know when supply depot is down
- difference in worst case (when I find opponent on 3th possible location) on Delta Quadrant is about 15 seconds compared to "normal" way to scout.

ch4ppi

Germany802 Posts

May 02 2011 14:02 GMT

Wow wtf 0.o

This is a great find, especially with the exe.

Alsn

Sweden995 Posts

May 02 2011 14:03 GMT

Yes, units having "perfect" pathfinding even though you haven't scouted has been known for a while.

Your trick of using waypoints to see if the worker paths slightly "off track" however is new to me, nice find!

Binabik

Germany686 Posts

May 02 2011 14:05 GMT

OMG blind ProxyGates incoming

Quasimoto3000

United States471 Posts

May 02 2011 14:05 GMT

I must say, his voice is quite sultry.

Iv been waiting for someone to put up a good video like this. Im sure pros could gain some cool advantages with this.

Despicatus

34 Posts

May 02 2011 14:05 GMT

Well, this is pretty evil for cannon rushes and just scouting in General, I really hope Blizzard updates the path finding engine to fix this.
I don't think that this is meant to be, nor that it should be in the game.

Uhm wait 1 sec, so how much faster can you actually scout your opponent on a 4 player map like tal darim with this?

Jinsho

United Kingdom3101 Posts

May 02 2011 14:07 GMT

Wow, sweet. That is really nice and quite ingenuitive.

monitor

United States2409 Posts

May 02 2011 14:07 GMT

Wow, finding the expansion and main is pretty unbelievable. It takes a keen eye to notice the slight change in direction, but it will definitely be used in games if its not patched. Time to start using it myself!

gondolin

France332 Posts

May 02 2011 14:08 GMT

Knowing that the opponent walled according to the scouting path of your drone is quite evident, but I had not thought at all about the other uses of the pathing system you describe, they are really clever!

Mikilatov

United States3897 Posts

May 02 2011 14:10 GMT

#10

Really cool, thanks for the video. I knew that the pathfinding could be exploited in terms of ramp blocks, but didn't think of the other applications brought up in the video. I'm not entirely sure which side of the fence I'm on in terms of if this should be changed or not, for I think it's kind of neat that players can use little tricks like this (BW was filled of random tricks itself, as we all know), but at the same time it's a bit... Broken.

Dny

Netherlands23 Posts

May 02 2011 14:10 GMT

#11

Imagine some pro using this trick in a tournamentgame.. Ppl that dont know this trick will be hella confused and blame the pro for hacking.

Hope Blizzard will fix this.

ru.meta

Russian Federation88 Posts

May 02 2011 14:12 GMT

#12

On May 02 2011 23:05 Despicatus wrote:
Well, this is pretty evil for cannon rushes and just scouting in General, I really hope Blizzard updates the path finding engine to fix this.
I don't think that this is meant to be, nor that it should be in the game.

Uhm wait 1 sec, so how much faster can you actually scout your opponent on a 4 player map like tal darim with this?

I'm not sure. Probably difference is not large. But sometimes 3 seconds is a difference between "I'm in" and "marine is out".

hugman

Sweden4644 Posts

May 02 2011 14:15 GMT

#13

This only works when there's a clear path between you and the obstacle you're trying to find, and that's not the case on a lot of maps. What I mean is that you need line of sight to your opponent's expo to "proxy scout" it.

PaPoolee

Netherlands660 Posts

May 02 2011 14:15 GMT

#14

Wow needs to be patched ASAP, great find =>.

Sleight

2471 Posts

May 02 2011 14:15 GMT

#15

Incredible find. Just incredible.

Binabik

Germany686 Posts

May 02 2011 14:15 GMT

#16

The great thing about this trick is that your opponent won't be able to notice that he's been scouted unless he places a building near the ramp.

Terran and Protoss will be as easily spotted as Zerg.

Keype

Sweden455 Posts

May 02 2011 14:16 GMT

#17

Really cool tricks u have find , stuff like that will probably get patched tho.

ru.meta

Russian Federation88 Posts

May 02 2011 14:16 GMT

#18

On May 02 2011 23:15 hugman wrote:
This only works when there's a clear path between you and the obstacle you're trying to find, and that's not the case on a lot of maps. What I mean is that you need line of sight to your opponent's expo to "proxy scout" it.

Definitely. Any ramp on path nullifies the difference in patches "with" and "without" Nexus.