|
StarCraft II really needs to put way more weight on strategy and tactics. Right now it’s way too mechanics-heavy. The young guys with naturally fast reactions and high APM basically own the entire scene. Even if your thinking is sharper and your builds are more creative, the mechanical gap alone tanks your execution, and you still lose. Meanwhile, the kids with fast reflexes just get whatever they want. Strategy and tactical design barely seem to matter anymore.
Now, don’t get me wrong — mechanics obviously matter. High APM isn’t just about raw talent; it takes a ton of grinding to get there. But the weighting is just way too lopsided now. This game has been out for 15 years. Almost everyone knows the unit counters and the meta builds inside and out. So when everyone understands the game at the same level, mechanics become pretty much the only deciding factor. The outcome is basically predetermined from the loading screen. That’s boring.
In same-MMR matchups right now, precision mechanics and APM decide at least 80% of games. The other 20% is everything else. Can the balance team do something about that? Bring mechanics —the hand stuff—down to like 50-60%, and let strategy and tactical thinking — the brain stuff — make up 30-40%. Then maybe 10% for luck and other factors.
The benefits would be huge. It would let the big-brain-but-slow-hands players actually enjoy the game. It would be way friendlier to older players, or the exhausted 9-to-5 office workers who just wanna play a few games after work. It would make pro matches more unpredictable and exciting. And the community would produce way more interesting content like — pro match analysis, strategy breakdowns and new design, new creative build order guides, that kind of stuff.
I think this could be a new direction for future SC2 changes, instead of always hyper-focusing on unit stats or damage numbers. I know it’s just my personal suggestion and probably won’t get noticed. And I know the forums will still be full of contrarians trying to argue with me. I’m used to it.
|
Yup, SC2s current balance is incredibly stale.
|
APM is how you execute tactics in an RTS with unit control (it's called "micro" and "managing multiple groups of units" - potentially in multiple engagements which is strategy, and for maintaining map awareness which is also strategy). This is done simultaneously with macroing - which is where you decide which units you will make (strategy) and allows you to actually make them by choosing when to make structures in what order (strategy) and when to take expansions in what places (strategy).
If you want to execute tactics with micro without worrying about the strategic macro elements, try a MOBA game.
If you want strategy and tactics without tactical micro, you might try an auto-battler like Team Fight Tactics or Mechabellum.
If you want to play a competitive RTS that has a high skill ceiling for both micro and macro, you can't get around the fact that higher APM unlocks higher capacity to execute tactics and strategy, micro and macro. The best you can do is make better decisions with use of your own APM that could close the gap with someone who has higher APM but is making worse decisions in utilizing it.
The reality is that there are many facets of tactics and strategy in a competitive RTS, and they are all done in real time, and so it takes a high amount of mechanical skill to execute them well at high levels. To reduce the mechanical skill ceiling is to also reduce the elements of tactics of strategy in the game.
Don't want to worry about the clicks for map awareness? Ok, you can see everything happening on the map now, and that part of strategy is removed.
Don't care about the clicks for making workers while managing your army and unit production? Ok, town hall structures do the mining automatically - and you no longer have worker harassment as a strategic tool to damage an opponent that has a larger clumped up army than you, encourage them to split that deathball to defend so you can actually take it on in smaller pieces, or potentially overtake them in production so you can soon have the larger army.
Don't care about the clicks for microing to minimize splash damage? Ok, splash damage is removed, now all races just mass blobs of the most DPS-dense units available to them and a-move them into each other, so no need for tactical micro.
|
|
|
|
|
|
EPT
