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Are you worried about the skill ceiling in SC2? - Page 12

Forum Index > SC2 General
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Alejandrisha
Profile Blog Joined July 2010
United States6565 Posts
October 29 2011 19:59 GMT
#221
as long as you can distinguish mvp's play from a 2nd tier code S korean terran, there isn't a problem. players are playing way better than they were just months ago and they're still not playing perfectly by any means. just give it time
get rich or die mining
TL+ Member
Tyree
Profile Joined November 2010
1508 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-10-29 20:09:05
October 29 2011 20:08 GMT
#222
People like to say that Flash, Jaedong "mastered" BW, but they actually didnt, nobody mastered that game. They had a few games which they played perfectly, or as close to perfect as humanly possible. But that was rare, they still made mistakes like every other progamer before them

SC2 is barely a year old, it is nowhere near mastered, you can see mistakes left and right and soon enough the game is getting changed with HotS, 1 year, then another massive change plus with.

Imagine SC2 basically sitting on a rollercoaster, no matter how good the players are they will never get to the skill ceiling. It will only happen once the game is no longer updated by even balance patches where you will have couple of years of uninterrupted competition and finally you might see a few select bonjwas get close to some kind of perfection of the game.
★ Top Gun ★
maybenexttime
Profile Blog Joined November 2006
Poland5816 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-10-29 20:19:39
October 29 2011 20:15 GMT
#223
On October 30 2011 04:57 Blasterion wrote:
Show nested quote +
On October 30 2011 04:48 Grobyc wrote:
I am worried about the skill ceiling in SC2, because I think the aspect of the game that determines the height of the ceiling is mechanics, like many others I assume. I agree it was also the mechanics in BW, but the ceiling for BW mechanics was virtually limitless because of how much more difficult effective multitasking was, wherease SC2 it's generally much easier to multitask effectively. I don't mean to bash SC2 in that regard, but my point is just more valid when it is compared, and to my knowledge it is pretty well accepted that good mechanics in BW were harder to come by.

By allocating APM away from mechanics by simplifying it, it allows better exploration of the game itself in other areas,


You guys keep talking about allocating APM differently but never give any specifics. As of now, there's simply less to do in SC2, be it macro or micro. When blizzard dumbed down macro, everyone said people will focus on micro more. It then turned out that micro is even more dumbed down (to the point people are calling moving Mutas over a Thor and pressing 'h' a "micro technique", for god's sake...). Now people are saying players will eventually allocate their APM/whatever elsewhere - but where?

I'd be content if SC2 allowed players to allocate their APM/skill elsewhere, but currently it does not. There's less macro AND micro than in BW. And even though the mechanics are easier than in BW, top SC2 players are showcasing worse multi-tasking, micro and macro than the top BW players.

Show me where that supposed potential is. I really do not see it. There are things like Marine vs. Baneling micro or Baneling landmines, but those are exception, whereas such things were the rule in BW. Blizzard is not going to fix the game. They openly say they won't fix certain flaws. And if anything, they are moving it more towards the WC3 model of micro - who uses the abilities to the fullest. I find that boring compared to BW micro. ;;

edit: And don't tell me I'm a mindless hater or something. I used to be one of the biggest SC2 enthusiasts. I took part in several SC2 related contests (together with FA for third place in SCLegacy macro mechanics contest), worked in the BW/SC2 section of GameReplays.org and discussed SC2 on three different sites like crazy. It's just that blizzard gradually made me lose all my hope that sc2 will ever live up to its name. One blunder after another.
opdomo
Profile Joined January 2011
United States8 Posts
October 29 2011 20:20 GMT
#224
I am a gold level terran player... Obviously I am not good at all..

I do feel however that sc2 is easier to play than bw for obvious reasons, such as the new macro system etc.

Things that I could make this game better, these are just ideas and please take them with a grain of salt (I personally would like for a harder game so the best players will always shine through)

1. For terran (only race I play and can say things that would make it harder to play) Put a time limit for how many mules can be called down. 1 per every minute or something like that, that way I can't just call down two mules if I forget to call them down at 50 energy.
2. Get rid of scan and make ravens cheaper.
3. Get rid of being able to que units

4. For all races, if somehow blizzard could cut down on the ball of death, make it so a certain amount of food can be in a control group. I personally feel micro is not as important because it is so easy to put units in a huge ball and attack. Granted pros still do great mircro with these balls with spits and ect, it would make a higher skill gap to be made to have multiple armies instead of one big army.

All these ideas could suck but the community needs to come up with ideas if they want things changed and propose them to blizzard.

Achilles306
Profile Joined October 2011
Canada84 Posts
October 29 2011 20:25 GMT
#225
Have you seen a 15 minute game where zerg doesn't miss an injection?
What about Terran never losing a marine to banelings?
How about Protoss never going above 50 chronoboost on any nexus?

I think the skill ceiling is still a far way off. Playing perfect (hitting the ceiling) is extremely difficult.
LimeNade
Profile Blog Joined February 2010
United States2125 Posts
October 29 2011 20:25 GMT
#226
as artosis says everyone still sucks hardcore at sc2 just chill people and relax. Until like 20 marines can even spread and take out like 4 colosus so only 1 marine can be hit at a time then we havent hit a skill ceiling :D
JD, need I say more? :D
Roxy
Profile Joined November 2010
Canada753 Posts
October 29 2011 20:30 GMT
#227
Could not disagree more

I think the skill ceiling is limitless
Even if the macro mechanics were easier (which imo they can and should be), people would never reach a spot where this is no room for improvement.

I am all in favor of people spending their micro skills doing decision oriented actions (rather than compulsory actions - such as making sure probes as split properly between gas and minerals)
http://sc2ranks.com/us/941824/Roxy - Masters Protoss: "Respect my authoritai"
Roxy
Profile Joined November 2010
Canada753 Posts
October 29 2011 20:37 GMT
#228
On October 30 2011 05:25 Achilles306 wrote:
Have you seen a 15 minute game where zerg doesn't miss an injection?
What about Terran never losing a marine to banelings?
How about Protoss never going above 50 chronoboost on any nexus?

I think the skill ceiling is still a far way off. Playing perfect (hitting the ceiling) is extremely difficult.



Going above 50 chronoboost on a nexus is not a bad thing.
It is very useful to have stockpiles chrono in the case of getting dropped (the same as zerg having unspent larva in case of emergencies).

As long as they are keeping their money low, you cant fault anyone for having high chronoboost (unless they have upgrades going and are not chronoing them)
http://sc2ranks.com/us/941824/Roxy - Masters Protoss: "Respect my authoritai"
Rinny
Profile Blog Joined October 2009
United States616 Posts
October 29 2011 20:39 GMT
#229
Ez mode macro is going to make the micro trick all the more crazier
Where my swarm at? Ye Yeee
TheBomb
Profile Joined October 2011
237 Posts
October 29 2011 20:42 GMT
#230
I remember a stork game in Brood War against a zerg that went something like this: Used dragoons and carriers to snipe off units with storm when zerg units came closer and red archon maelstorming units that come closer. On the other hand we had zerg sitting above stork with hydras, queens, scourge, devourer and defiler. Using dark swarm to protect the hydras from interceptors and dragoons bellow and using queens at the same time to slow down carriers and get devourers to hit them so they go down easier by scourge and hydras all at the same time when dodging malestorm and storm on top of it.

The closest I'm seeing in SC2 is with broodlords with infestors vs marines, tanks and vikings. Of course the fact that vikings hard counter broodlords is a weak link and the fact that infestors hard couter marines is a weak link and the fact that sieged tanks hard counter infestors in a weak link. And while its quite interesting, its still way bellow what Brood War has!
Starcraft 2 needs LAN support
Bagration
Profile Blog Joined October 2011
United States18282 Posts
October 29 2011 20:49 GMT
#231
MVP was actually a very strong A-teamer, and made it to the round of 8 of a recent BW starleague before losing to Flash. Nestea also was no pushover either, as he and Reach (possibly Kingdom, not 100% sure) were a very strong 2v2 team. Yet both of these players still make mistakes and are not invincible.

If Flash, JD, Bisu were to come to SC2, the skill level would likely increase, but there should always be room for improvement. I think that it will all come down to strategy, micro and gamesense, as all pros will have macro to near perfect levels. After all, simply seeing one pro outmacro the other does not make for an exciting match either.
Team Slayers, Axiom-Acer and Vile forever
Doc Daneeka
Profile Joined March 2010
United States577 Posts
October 29 2011 20:50 GMT
#232
i'm not too worried about it. the game is mechanically easier because of the smarter AI for sure (as well as some better UI), but i feel like that frees up APM to do other things, like micro more. what i'm actually afraid of is that ridiculous builds can't be balanced out of the game basically because of how much damage units do to each other in this game, and that will kill the cost/benefit ratio of very attentive micro. i can't guess at how the dev team will address that problem. i'm optimistic but we'll see. i'm also afraid the devs will act too soon before someone solves a 'broken' build through micro or some other means.
payed off security
TheSubtleArt
Profile Joined May 2011
Canada2527 Posts
October 29 2011 20:55 GMT
#233
On October 29 2011 18:12 Lightswarm wrote:
Are you winning all your games? If so, the skill ceiling has been reached. If not, stop posting and start practicing

I think you completely missed the point of the thread lol
Dodge arrows
Akta
Profile Joined February 2011
447 Posts
October 29 2011 20:59 GMT
#234
On October 30 2011 05:15 maybenexttime wrote:
Show nested quote +
On October 30 2011 04:57 Blasterion wrote:
On October 30 2011 04:48 Grobyc wrote:
I am worried about the skill ceiling in SC2, because I think the aspect of the game that determines the height of the ceiling is mechanics, like many others I assume. I agree it was also the mechanics in BW, but the ceiling for BW mechanics was virtually limitless because of how much more difficult effective multitasking was, wherease SC2 it's generally much easier to multitask effectively. I don't mean to bash SC2 in that regard, but my point is just more valid when it is compared, and to my knowledge it is pretty well accepted that good mechanics in BW were harder to come by.

By allocating APM away from mechanics by simplifying it, it allows better exploration of the game itself in other areas,


You guys keep talking about allocating APM differently but never give any specifics. As of now, there's simply less to do in SC2, be it macro or micro. When blizzard dumbed down macro, everyone said people will focus on micro more. It then turned out that micro is even more dumbed down (to the point people are calling moving Mutas over a Thor and pressing 'h' a "micro technique", for god's sake...). Now people are saying players will eventually allocate their APM/whatever elsewhere - but where?

I'd be content if SC2 allowed players to allocate their APM/skill elsewhere, but currently it does not. There's less macro AND micro than in BW. And even though the mechanics are easier than in BW, top SC2 players are showcasing worse multi-tasking, micro and macro than the top BW players.

Show me where that supposed potential is. I really do not see it. There are things like Marine vs. Baneling micro or Baneling landmines, but those are exception, whereas such things were the rule in BW. Blizzard is not going to fix the game. They openly say they won't fix certain flaws. And if anything, they are moving it more towards the WC3 model of micro - who uses the abilities to the fullest. I find that boring compared to BW micro. ;;

edit: And don't tell me I'm a mindless hater or something. I used to be one of the biggest SC2 enthusiasts. I took part in several SC2 related contests (together with FA for third place in SCLegacy macro mechanics contest), worked in the BW/SC2 section of GameReplays.org and discussed SC2 on three different sites like crazy. It's just that blizzard gradually made me lose all my hope that sc2 will ever live up to its name. One blunder after another.
It's hard to try to explain without sounding rude since thinking there is some form of skill cap that can be reached means the person has a very low understanding of the game and to be blunt, low understanding of RTS games in general.

We can take basic multitasking. If your multitasking and speed is better than your opponents you can force battles at 2 spots at the same time, or 3, or 4, or 5, or 6, or 20.

We can take micro. People post those bot videos to show glimpses of what can be achieved in theory. That "no human can do it" doesn't make it a bad argument, it just illustrates that the more skilled players will always come out ahead of a less skilled player in the same situation. You could make videos like that of anything, marines vs marines, zerglings vs zerglings, stalkers vs hydras, VR's vs queens, probes vs marines ....

And so on. A perfected bot would probably hit tens of thousands apm for example. And on top of the humanly impossible to reach speed caps the strategical possibilities probably go way beyond things like chess.

Games like these are so extremely complex that people would probably easily be able to compete in it if 99% of the current game was automated and each race only had 1 battle unit..
Alzadar
Profile Blog Joined April 2010
Canada5009 Posts
October 29 2011 21:00 GMT
#235
On October 30 2011 05:42 TheBomb wrote:
I remember a stork game in Brood War against a zerg that went something like this: Used dragoons and carriers to snipe off units with storm when zerg units came closer and red archon maelstorming units that come closer. On the other hand we had zerg sitting above stork with hydras, queens, scourge, devourer and defiler. Using dark swarm to protect the hydras from interceptors and dragoons bellow and using queens at the same time to slow down carriers and get devourers to hit them so they go down easier by scourge and hydras all at the same time when dodging malestorm and storm on top of it.

The closest I'm seeing in SC2 is with broodlords with infestors vs marines, tanks and vikings. Of course the fact that vikings hard counter broodlords is a weak link and the fact that infestors hard couter marines is a weak link and the fact that sieged tanks hard counter infestors in a weak link. And while its quite interesting, its still way bellow what Brood War has!


It's only different in your mind. You can just as easily say "Defilers hard counter Marines, Science Vessels hard counter Defilers, Scourge hard counter Science Vessels, Marines hard counter Scourge".

In both cases it's an oversimplification.
I am the Town Medic.
Archie_Lewis
Profile Joined July 2011
Czech Republic87 Posts
October 29 2011 21:03 GMT
#236
Rome wasnt build in a day man. Neither was Brood War. Just give them time to play and in few years, we will see some gosu stuff as well. But i think this process might be accelerated if some of the BW super pros turned to the dark side and switched to SC2, and if he won everything as everybody thinks, it would make recent SC2ers work much much harder which would result in better matches
"wow im so bad at this game..." - Chris Loranger
Deleted User 183001
Profile Joined May 2011
2939 Posts
October 29 2011 21:10 GMT
#237
The skill ceiling is seeming a level or two lower than in BW. My concern is that it actually too low and people can become only negligibly better past a certain point.
itkovian
Profile Blog Joined March 2011
United States1763 Posts
October 29 2011 21:14 GMT
#238
Even if the skill ceiling in SC2 is lower than BW, it is still humanly impossible to reach so I'm not worried about it at all. I've also seen it posted that because the macro mechanics in SC2 are less demanding, the deciding factor in games might revert more to creative and powerful strategy instead of mechanical prowess. I don't know if this is true, but it is an interesting thing to consider.
=)=
Ribbon
Profile Blog Joined April 2010
United States5278 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-10-29 21:18:20
October 29 2011 21:16 GMT
#239
How many Zergs get an overseer and leave it camped at their base with 200 energy for the rest of the game? Once you get an overseer for detection anyway, scouting with changlings should be part of your macro cycle (since you're not using that energy for anything, it's literally free. Scout his army composition. Scout for hidden expos. Have them look for drops. There's literally nothing worse than not making it). We don't see Zergs even try. We see Zerg's sacrifice overseers without dropping changings to scout another direction, too (yes, success rate of that is abysmal, but it's free and there's literally no reason not to).

When's the last time you even saw a Protoss P-move his zealots to minimize tank splash?

There's so much people aren't doing.
Fleebenworth
Profile Joined April 2011
463 Posts
October 29 2011 21:16 GMT
#240
I don't know how you can look at where pro-level play in SC2 was at release and compare it to today and see anything but an amazing difference.

The threads OP mentions (particularly elephant in the room - which is severely flawed in many respects) do nothing to establish that players are nearing skill cap in SC2. If anything, the skill gap between players who take the game seriously and practice diligently and everyone else is widening.
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