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Inject v extra base which gives you more minerals?

Forum Index > SC2 General
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BabelFish1
Profile Joined September 2015
186 Posts
Last Edited: 2019-10-10 02:56:23
October 10 2019 02:37 GMT
#1
I don't even know where to begin in order to calculate this but what I want to do is figure out which gives the most minerals;

Creating a second hatchery and continuously producing Drones or building a queen and waiting for Inject to finish before creating an explosion of drones.

I suspect that while Inject gives more larvae than a second hatchery, creating drones for the entire time Inject cycle and drone production time lasts leads to significantly more minerals in the bank.

Now you're probably asking "Why would you worry about such an odd thing...Queens are just...better" and while I normally agree there is one build in ZvP which may be the exception and that's 12 pool expand with an extractor trick to get out the 6 lings. In this build you double expand, skip queens until your 4th and rely entirely on constant drone production generating minerals rather than waiting for Inject to finish to get an explosion of drones.

Whenever I play normally I often notice that my expands are much more sluggish and my bank doesn't increase nearly as fast but this is just anecdotal evidence.

Can someone please help me figure out how many minerals you get by using a hatchery for drone production, constantly making drones as larvae appear vs the minerals you get from using Inject for drone production in say, 29+36+12=77 seconds? The 77 seconds is reflective of the Queen build time, the Inject duration and the Drone build time?
pzlama333
Profile Joined April 2013
United States282 Posts
October 10 2019 03:01 GMT
#2
Hatchery cost 350, spawns one larva every 15 seconds. Max: 3 without inject. It takes 100 seconds to build a hatchery.
Queen cost 150, 50 seconds. Injecting larva will create 3 larva every 40 second. Hatchery can store as many as 19 larva with injecting.
2 drones per mineral patch give 78-90 mineral per minute based on mineral distance. 3 drones give 102 mineral per minute per patch. One base has 8 mineral patches.
Basic math.
BabelFish1
Profile Joined September 2015
186 Posts
Last Edited: 2019-10-10 03:47:23
October 10 2019 03:21 GMT
#3
On October 10 2019 12:01 pzlama333 wrote:
Hatchery cost 350, spawns one larva every 15 seconds. Max: 3 without inject. It takes 100 seconds to build a hatchery.
Queen cost 150, 50 seconds. Injecting larva will create 3 larva every 40 second. Hatchery can store as many as 19 larva with injecting.
2 drones per mineral patch give 78-90 mineral per minute based on mineral distance. 3 drones give 102 mineral per minute per patch. One base has 8 mineral patches.
Basic math.


That doesn't account for 1/2 the important variables here. Thank you for the effort but I might need another user with a better understanding of the situation.

Specifically, you list a lot of variables that have no play here or aren't framed with proper context. Like A Hatcheries build time doesn't matter as much because the minerals you gain can be used to build another hatchery, well before you'd build one with a Queen.

It's hardly basic math when you have compounding variables so I ask you to keep the snark to yourself. TY.
Azzur
Profile Blog Joined July 2010
Australia6267 Posts
October 10 2019 04:36 GMT
#4
I think the best way to approach this problem is to just do the builds yourself and then compare the amount of minerals at the end. I think trying to do maths on this would be too difficult.
brickrd
Profile Blog Joined March 2014
United States4894 Posts
October 10 2019 05:21 GMT
#5
i'm not against you exploring the math and getting your answer, but how are you going 12 pool double expand with no queens and not getting torched by a zealot/2 adept counterattack?
TL+ Member
Ej_
Profile Blog Joined January 2013
47656 Posts
Last Edited: 2019-10-10 05:29:22
October 10 2019 05:28 GMT
#6
Ironically enough, 12pool is the one ZvP build where you should 2 base, so you can defend your bases with 3 queens and slowlings.
If you double expand after 12pool and don't lose the game to an adept counter, your opponent has done something wrong.

Not to mention that queens are necessary as anti your mobile anti-air.
"Technically the dictionary has zero authority on the meaning or words" - Rodya
phodacbiet
Profile Joined August 2010
United States1740 Posts
October 10 2019 07:23 GMT
#7
I think something is off if you can double expand after 12 pool and not die. By the time the adepts get to your base, you'll have around what... 22-24 drones, and 6 slow lings with no queens? Yeah that's insta death.

Not sure if I understand you correctly, but are you asking if we can just hatch everytime instead of getting the queen? So say, instead of 2 base 2 queens, you're thinking of 3 hatch 1 queen? There is a build for that. It's a bit of a gamble though because you'll be open to a lot of early aggro builds . But I think anymore than three hatch open any you'll be super open. As you expand, you'll have more bases to defend, and without queens and being capped for larva, you'll bank more mineral, sure, but you won't be able to spend it.

With the standard 17 pool -> hatch or 16/17 hatch opening, you'll have enough money to build queens AND to drone at the same time. So you will be able to spend all your larva and build up minerals. Without queens, your hatches will cap out at 3 larva since they stop naturally producing, so it doesn't matter if you make more minerals if you can't spend it. It's not just a balance of mineral, but you have to factor in larva as a resource as well.
Azzur
Profile Blog Joined July 2010
Australia6267 Posts
October 10 2019 07:50 GMT
#8
I can see all the advantages of queens but in reality, what is the question in the OP? It's to compare which build produces more minerals, extra hatch vs queen.

We all can come up with math but I think the best way is to simply perform both builds over and over and then compare which comes out ahead.
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