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Breaking 3 base - Establishing Asymmetrical Mining - Page 2

Forum Index > SC2 General
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FMPChaz
Profile Joined July 2012
United States4 Posts
October 25 2013 04:47 GMT
#21
...Could we please have some visuals? Like graphs?

Thanks!
Nothing is impossible, given a sufficient amount of dedication
Kyir
Profile Joined June 2011
United States1047 Posts
October 25 2013 05:00 GMT
#22
On October 25 2013 13:46 S1eth wrote:
Show nested quote +
On October 25 2013 13:34 Arco wrote:
On October 25 2013 12:53 mewo wrote:
You'd have to rebalance the whole game. Maybe for sc3, but for now isn't 16 on each base enough to make 4 base ideal?

Doesn't Riot do this every new season in League of Legends? What am I missing here? Has Blizzard dropped support for StarCraft 2? I was under the impression they wanted to make StarCraft 2 the best eSports game possible...

Sure, it might shake up the balance. It would also make the game way more interesting to watch, which greatly outweighs the negatives. Balance patches can come after the changes.


So naive. Give Blizzard a few million dollars, and maybe they will, 2 years after LotV is released.
I don't even know how you can ask a question as dumb as "has Blizzard dropped support for Starcraft 2" when they are developing an expansion at this very moment.

And never ever again compare SC2 to a f2p game.


You're overreacting I think. The question was meant to suggest the absurdity that Blizzard NOT continue making changes to improve the game, even if they're somewhat radical.
CrayonSc2
Profile Joined August 2011
United States267 Posts
October 25 2013 06:14 GMT
#23
the only problem with this is that if you change mining, the whole game is completly turnt upside down and more balances has to be made to stop early rushes. a good example is, if you slow down mining and a zerg 10 pools. vs a toss. the toss can never do a FFE because of the lack of minerals. unless he did a super safe something like 13 forge 13 cannon. even then its still not safe for a whole lot of stuff. also it changes the entire game and meta. to be honest i think you would see a boring 15 min macro light pressure and hit the 20 min mark where action will occur.i mean at that point the macro would kick in and mechanics and it will be a better all game, but you reduce all early pressure and nerfed all allins and buff some cheese. and when it is figured out, the first 16 min of the game would be the super safe macro style, then you will get the game you will enjoy. a lot of sacrifices indeed. you are basically going to put everyone in a platinum level until something is figured out for the next 3-6months.
Lobotomist
Profile Joined May 2010
United States1541 Posts
October 25 2013 06:31 GMT
#24
Increasing harvest time is an elegant solution to the "3-base problem" of worker saturation, much better than changing the worker AI (which would require huge effort). The game would certainly have to be re-balanced around this (seems like it would make zerg OP, as they're prone to expand faster).

A while ago, either lalush or sheth (or some other pro, zerg I believe) posted a pretty detailed analysis that would be good to include in the OP, at least to lend weight to the argument that 3-base optimal eco is a flaw. Some people don't seem to agree, in this thread.
Teching to hive too quickly isn't just a risk: it's an ultrarisk
Grobyc
Profile Blog Joined June 2008
Canada18410 Posts
Last Edited: 2013-10-25 06:36:20
October 25 2013 06:33 GMT
#25
On October 25 2013 12:42 The_Red_Viper wrote:
Show nested quote +
On October 25 2013 12:39 Rasera wrote:
No. I experimentally figured out how to recreate the Asymmetric mining effect from BW without dumbing down worker AI. If you look at the experimental results, you can see that spreading the workers across more bases gave an increase in mining, as opposed to current symmetrical effects. Therefore, increases the time it takes for them to mine reintroduces the asymmetrical mining effect.


well yeah its quite logical actually^^
Right now workers dont travel as much inbetween the minerals cause they mine at the "perfect speed".
If you slow them down they will travel more and you will get more income when you spread them out, so yeah ^^

Yeah this seems like something that should be obvious and there aren't really any arguments someone could make against it.

Of course what's important and already being mentioned is that if this was implemented, the game needing re-balance is likely true. Kind of impossible to determine whether that's the case or not without actually changing things and testing it though, cause who knows, maybe it would be balanced still (BOs, timings, etc would be different due to economy change).

So yeah, your hypothesis is correct, but what's the point? Unless there's good reason for something like this to get implemented it won't, and even if there is good reason, it's a large shot in the dark to make such an update as it would be a huge, unpredictable balance change to the game.

edit: reading the above post now (posted whiled I was writing this) could maybe classify as "good reason", though I haven't read the aforementioned post. Still would mean dragons ahead with balancing though :o
If you watch Godzilla backwards it's about a benevolent lizard who helps rebuild a city and then moonwalks into the ocean.
dcemuser
Profile Joined August 2010
United States3248 Posts
October 25 2013 06:36 GMT
#26
These are the type of drastic changes that need to be made in LotV. They need to make radical changes, even if there isn't a big point, as long as people believe it is a big issue.

For example, the community was really big on the "make units spread out when they walk instead of clumping" thing for a while, and Blizzard said "well, we tried that in testing and it didn't seem to matter..."

As Blizzard, for LotV, I'd revisit those type of ideas and implement them, even if it "doesn't seem to matter", since player perception of a game is equally important (if not more important) than the game itself.
WolfintheSheep
Profile Joined June 2011
Canada14127 Posts
October 25 2013 06:47 GMT
#27
On October 25 2013 15:36 dcemuser wrote:
These are the type of drastic changes that need to be made in LotV. They need to make radical changes, even if there isn't a big point, as long as people believe it is a big issue.

For example, the community was really big on the "make units spread out when they walk instead of clumping" thing for a while, and Blizzard said "well, we tried that in testing and it didn't seem to matter..."

As Blizzard, for LotV, I'd revisit those type of ideas and implement them, even if it "doesn't seem to matter", since player perception of a game is equally important (if not more important) than the game itself.


The thing about unit clumping is that people were saying it was the solution to deathballs...which doesn't even stand-up to theorycraft. You death ball might have a slightly larger radius, but they still get to where you want at the same time. See most other RTS games, like Dawn of War, where your units move in a spread out formation everywhere. It looks more less ballish, but it functions exactly the same.

What people really want, and will never get, is dumb/random AI pathing.
Average means I'm better than half of you.
Insoleet
Profile Joined May 2012
France1806 Posts
October 25 2013 06:53 GMT
#28
Would be cool to see blizzard experiment this for LotV.
hansonslee
Profile Blog Joined April 2011
United States2027 Posts
October 25 2013 07:09 GMT
#29
Asymmetrical mining sounds pretty cool! But still we have a lot of balancing issues to face when this design was implemented.

For example, Protoss wrapgate units lose their dominance pretty quickly. Once Terran has stim and medivacs, those units are at a huge disadvantage. As for Zerg, Lair tech with speed roaches and speedling crush Protoss t1 units.

As for Zerg, you need to stay 1 base ahead to have a fighting chance against the other races. But then again, maybe, if Zerg had 0.5 base advantage, Zerg would not be at a great disadvantage.

I think Terran is the one that is going to be least affected because those marines are pretty cost effective.

You should post this on bnet forums!
Seed's # 1 fan!!! #ForVengeance
Fizzy
Profile Joined March 2012
Sweden388 Posts
October 25 2013 13:48 GMT
#30
To all the people out there who think big changes are bad: Go out and see the world, do some traveling... pick up the ugliest chick at the party and try to live life.

Change is good (most of the time), we have all been watching the same SC2 matches for 3 years now. Make marines unable to shoot air and instead make banshees shoot like hellions! Fuck, do something to spice things up and make this shit interesting!

Sure i enjoy watching Starcraft 2 as it is just as much as anyone else, i dont play the game tho. And the only reason i enjoy watching it is because im such a huge fan of Naniwa, Mvp and Grubby. Would those 3 people leave this scene i would have absolutley no reason to keep watching. Why? Because its actually quite boring.
Mvp - Grubby - NaNiwa - Alliance DOTA2 <3
lolfail9001
Profile Joined August 2013
Russian Federation40190 Posts
October 25 2013 13:55 GMT
#31
On October 25 2013 22:48 Fizzy wrote:
To all the people out there who think big changes are bad: Go out and see the world, do some traveling... pick up the ugliest chick at the party and try to live life.

Change is good (most of the time), we have all been watching the same SC2 matches for 3 years now. Make marines unable to shoot air and instead make banshees shoot like hellions! Fuck, do something to spice things up and make this shit interesting!

Sure i enjoy watching Starcraft 2 as it is just as much as anyone else, i dont play the game tho. And the only reason i enjoy watching it is because im such a huge fan of Naniwa, Mvp and Grubby. Would those 3 people leave this scene i would have absolutley no reason to keep watching. Why? Because its actually quite boring.

Dota 2 is full of interesting stuff, yet i find it boring and repetitive to watch even after 6.79.
BW for last 3 years of it was pretty much the same thing over and over again too.
As for economy changes. Yeah, it was repeated over and over again, there is no clear limit to income, there is limit to amount of workers one makes without actually ending up without sufficient army. Granted, i still take more and more bases even when sitting at something like 70-80 drones on whirlwind/frost. Why? Because for some strange reason everyone underrates the fact that income in late game actually starts to drop due to bases mining out and for me, as zerg, trading armies is like the best way to actually win the game without going full base-race. And for trading armies all game long, you better have some fucking consistent income.
DeMoN pulls off a Miracle and Flies to the Moon
Arcane86
Profile Blog Joined November 2011
United States68 Posts
Last Edited: 2013-10-25 14:05:37
October 25 2013 14:04 GMT
#32
Thanks for your work! I wonder, what would happen if you shortened the distance from the town hall to the mineral patches. We might see a similar effect with this less wonky perturbation.
There is no Cow Level
aka_star
Profile Blog Joined July 2007
United Kingdom1546 Posts
October 25 2013 14:07 GMT
#33
Just ask blizzard to limit worker saturation to 16 on minerals, thus promoting more than 3 base play or a stronger army. Alternatively increase the gas cost of everything and decrease the effectiveness of mineral only units.
FlashDave.999 aka Star
Dingodile
Profile Joined December 2011
4139 Posts
October 25 2013 14:14 GMT
#34
I like to know the income difference about 3 bases each 16 vs 4 bases each 12.
Grubby | ToD | Moon | Lyn | Sky
Nuclease
Profile Joined August 2011
United States1049 Posts
October 25 2013 14:29 GMT
#35
Wow, the data are very interesting. Will certainly have to sit and digest this whole study a little bit more at length sometime later today.

I feel like I'm in my Biology lab when I read this haha
Zealots, not zee-lots. | Never forget, KTViolet, Go)Space. | You will never be as good as By.Flash, and your drops will never be as sick as MMA.
LaLuSh
Profile Blog Joined April 2003
Sweden2358 Posts
Last Edited: 2013-10-25 14:43:13
October 25 2013 14:30 GMT
#36
This topic has been discussed and explored at great detail in the Starbow mod thread. Read the last 50 pages or so to get up to speed. I will try to do a summary:

  • Changing harvest time affects the max income rate, you've already figured this out. The other variable that affects it is Harvest Amount (yield per trip). Travel time does not affect max income rate, but it does affect the rate of growth on the income curve.
  • There's a harvest time "magical number" where workers will start wandering. It's about 5.4.
  • The problem with a 5.4 harvest time, is that the max income rate becomes considerably lower than both BW and SC2. Tread carefully.
  • In Starcraft 2, workers are coded to queue if a currently mining worker has less than about 1 second remaining before they finish mining.
  • In Brood War, workers are only coded to queue if all mineral patches are simultaneously occupied and being mined from (so BW workers will settle down at 3 workers per patch and mine at max possible income rate).
  • If you want worker wandering and diminishing returns from 1 worker per patch, you cannot go lower than 5.4 Harvest time in SC2 without using triggers that remove the workers' current queuing behavior. This is what Starbow does. And SC2BW has now replicated Starbow's work.
  • The reason BW's income curve couldn't be replicated is likely because of wonky and inefficient pathfinding, coupled with acceleration delays when bouncing off occupied patches, coupled with mineral patches probably being situated closer to the CC/Nex/Hatch (meaning wandering could be achieved with a lower harvest time).


The reason Blizzard went for 5 minerals per trip and a radically decreased Harvest Time, is because that solution was the best possible match you could achieve to BW mining rates in SC2. It's basically impossible to replicate the same income curve as BW in SC2 with 8 minerals per trip. So Blizzard actually did their homework. They just didn't realize the ramifications of their insistence on staying true to BW mining rates.


HeeroFX
Profile Blog Joined November 2010
United States2704 Posts
October 25 2013 14:33 GMT
#37
On October 25 2013 12:39 Rasera wrote:
No. I experimentally figured out how to recreate the Asymmetric mining effect from BW without dumbing down worker AI. If you look at the experimental results, you can see that spreading the workers across more bases gave an increase in mining, as opposed to current symmetrical effects. Therefore, increases the time it takes for them to mine reintroduces the asymmetrical mining effect.




So what you want is them to remake brood war in HD with shiny physics and what not? WOuld this solve all the problems of SC 2? No, BW had it's own problems. But yeah nice write up. I think the best way to change the whole 3 base every game, always, forever thing is for the meta game to change. Players should find a way to take advantage of someone going for fast 3 base. There has to be a way to do that without changing the game.
NicksonReyes
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
Philippines4431 Posts
October 25 2013 14:51 GMT
#38
On October 25 2013 23:33 HeeroFX wrote:
I think the best way to change the whole 3 base every game, always, forever thing is for the meta game to change. Players should find a way to take advantage of someone going for fast 3 base. There has to be a way to do that without changing the game.

There are cheeses and 2-base all-ins already though, the way to do that without changing even the meta game .
"Start yo" -FlaSh
LaLuSh
Profile Blog Joined April 2003
Sweden2358 Posts
Last Edited: 2013-10-25 15:02:19
October 25 2013 14:56 GMT
#39
On October 25 2013 23:33 HeeroFX wrote:
Show nested quote +
On October 25 2013 12:39 Rasera wrote:
No. I experimentally figured out how to recreate the Asymmetric mining effect from BW without dumbing down worker AI. If you look at the experimental results, you can see that spreading the workers across more bases gave an increase in mining, as opposed to current symmetrical effects. Therefore, increases the time it takes for them to mine reintroduces the asymmetrical mining effect.




So what you want is them to remake brood war in HD with shiny physics and what not? WOuld this solve all the problems of SC 2? No, BW had it's own problems. But yeah nice write up. I think the best way to change the whole 3 base every game, always, forever thing is for the meta game to change. Players should find a way to take advantage of someone going for fast 3 base. There has to be a way to do that without changing the game.


...

Consider this.

#1 All economical development in SC2 is heavily speeded up compared to Brood War. Macro mechanics (larva inject, chrono, mule) turn SC2 into Brood War on meth.

#2 A game which has much faster economic development at the same time imposes a much lower cap on max amount of bases. Isn't this contradictory? You reach max income much sooner, but you're capped much earlier?

#3 You propose that the "metagame" can fix what is essentially Brood War on meth limited to 3 max bases.

Good luck with that without turning the game into a complete lottery in the process. You can join the Kulas Ravine and Steppes of War fan-group, because that's what a "metagame" fix preventing people from reaching 3 bases would look like.

cptjibberjabber
Profile Joined November 2012
Netherlands87 Posts
October 25 2013 15:32 GMT
#40
On October 25 2013 23:56 LaLuSh wrote:
Show nested quote +
On October 25 2013 23:33 HeeroFX wrote:
On October 25 2013 12:39 Rasera wrote:
No. I experimentally figured out how to recreate the Asymmetric mining effect from BW without dumbing down worker AI. If you look at the experimental results, you can see that spreading the workers across more bases gave an increase in mining, as opposed to current symmetrical effects. Therefore, increases the time it takes for them to mine reintroduces the asymmetrical mining effect.




So what you want is them to remake brood war in HD with shiny physics and what not? WOuld this solve all the problems of SC 2? No, BW had it's own problems. But yeah nice write up. I think the best way to change the whole 3 base every game, always, forever thing is for the meta game to change. Players should find a way to take advantage of someone going for fast 3 base. There has to be a way to do that without changing the game.


...

Consider this.

#1 All economical development in SC2 is heavily speeded up compared to Brood War. Macro mechanics (larva inject, chrono, mule) turn SC2 into Brood War on meth.

#2 A game which has much faster economic development at the same time imposes a much lower cap on max amount of bases. Isn't this contradictory? You reach max income much sooner, but you're capped much earlier?

#3 You propose that the "metagame" can fix what is essentially Brood War on meth limited to 3 max bases.

Good luck with that without turning the game into a complete lottery in the process. You can join the Kulas Ravine and Steppes of War fan-group, because that's what a "metagame" fix preventing people from reaching 3 bases would look like.


well if you reach the optimum amount of income sooner then it is not weird that you reach the cap sooner. And if you can get more out of 1 base then it is IMO not weird that the necessary amount of bases decreases aswell...
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