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[Rant] Zerg need to be ahead in bases - Page 2

Forum Index > SC2 General
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CrazyF1r3f0x
Profile Blog Joined August 2010
United States2120 Posts
November 17 2010 01:52 GMT
#21
I was talking to a friend the other day (who plays z) and he asked me why Zerg always needs to be ahead in bases, sadly my Poor Protoss brain didn't know what to do. I tried to explain it, but I stopped when I realized that I never really though about it, because it was just a fact in Brood War, and I'd come to accept it. I would truly be interested if some one had some insightful knowledge on this because, I wonder why it has become such an accepted notion.
"Actual happiness always looks pretty squalid in comparison with the overcompensations for misery."
seiferoth10
Profile Joined May 2010
3362 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-11-17 01:53:22
November 17 2010 01:52 GMT
#22
It's been said numerous times in this thread but... Zerg needs to build extra hatches anyway or they'll get overrun in production, so why not build your extra hatches next to minerals/gas? That way you can mine from there and get the additional larva capacity, kinda kills two birds with one stone.
Cambam
Profile Blog Joined September 2010
United States360 Posts
November 17 2010 01:53 GMT
#23
I don't think you mean what you say here, OP:

First of all, anyone who thinks that zerg needs to be ahead in bases to have a stronger economy is seriously misguided.


You're right, that did come out a little unclear. What I was trying to say was that people who think zerg needs to have a better income than their opponent to be equal with them are misguided. That would be a horrible design/balance decision and it would be super imbalanced for zerg. Luckily, it's not true. You never hear casters say "It's 50 drones to 40 probes, so things are about equal..."
EGMachine
Profile Blog Joined February 2006
United States1643 Posts
November 17 2010 01:53 GMT
#24
Yeah I can tell you from experience, zerg must have a higher resource income in order to deal with protoss / terran. Now note that I said "resource income" 9 times out of 10 zerg has to have more bases than an opponent but in rare cases such as a protoss who goes 2 base 6 gate timing attack and cut's a ton of probes the zerg would stay at his natural keep up drone production and take a delayed third base but this is one of the only exceptions.
I'm like, the coolest
Acritter
Profile Joined August 2010
Syria7637 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-11-17 02:00:01
November 17 2010 01:56 GMT
#25
On November 17 2010 10:40 Terrifyer wrote:
I disagree with this 100%.

BW and SC2 are completely different games, but they are still similar in that zerg play needs more expo's than your terran/toss opponent.

"You don't need 2 hatches as soon as the game starts and you don't need 3 hatches the second your opponent expands"

Do you have a problem with macro play? it seems that you think 1 base play is still fine to do even though the meta game has changed a lot since the beta...

Please don't try and sound so arrogant in your post next time, it makes you sound really stupid.


I have more problem with YOUR arrogance than OP's. First of all, you appear to understand NOTHING about BW Zerg. BW Zerg was all about the gas. Zerg was by far the most gas-hungry race, and had to expand a ton to feed that hunger. If you look at BW Zerg bases, there are what, 12 Drones at a good base (not counting gas)? Guess what. In SC2, Zerg have equal worker counts in their bases to Terran and Protoss. The nature of the income is completely different. Sure, you might want to expand more if you're going for some really high-gas composition, like low-ling Mutaling or heavy Infestor play, but for the majority of Zerg builds you simply don't need a glut of gas. Second, you completely misunderstand the POINT of the OP. He's trying to show there's a DIFFERENCE between unit production and economy, and that the reason Zerg usually "needs" an extra base is because they need the unit production, not the economy. He was trying to encourage more conservative play that lets Zerg survive through heavy pressure by keeping their units more centralized and then expanding when they can hold it, rather than trying to hold an expansion they can't or risk losing because they can't keep up in production. I would really appreciate it if you knew what you were talking about before you posted, and refrained from insulting good ideas because they don't fit your preconceptions.

EDIT: Okay, a little extreme, but the fact remains that the main importance of a new base is that it gives more production rather than more income. This isn't BW.
dont let your memes be dreams - konydora, motivational speaker | not actually living in syria
Kiarip
Profile Joined August 2008
United States1835 Posts
November 17 2010 01:57 GMT
#26
On November 17 2010 10:53 Machine[USA] wrote:
Yeah I can tell you from experience, zerg must have a higher resource income in order to deal with protoss / terran. Now note that I said "resource income" 9 times out of 10 zerg has to have more bases than an opponent but in rare cases such as a protoss who goes 2 base 6 gate timing attack and cut's a ton of probes the zerg would stay at his natural keep up drone production and take a delayed third base but this is one of the only exceptions.


^

I respect your opinion as you're a much better player than me, but I feel like you have this feeling because a lot of Protosses take too long to expand to their third. Massing Colossus/stalker/sentry on 2 bases even if you're fully saturated is going to be an all-in against a zerg who already has his third up, so if the Protoss wants to continue later into the game (I think most try not to,) they will start taking their third faster, so it will not seem like you're a base ahead of them for too long.

Do you think this sounds plausible?
mardi
Profile Blog Joined August 2010
United States1164 Posts
November 17 2010 01:59 GMT
#27
For zerg to have equal footing in the midgame, zerg should have 1 more base. Also, they could have probalby 2 or 3 more hatcheries than the opponent's number of bases. Reason for having 1 more base than the other guy is because your opponent(protoss or terran) can build workers from their cc/nexus while you make your drones and army units from your hatchery. That extra base allows you to keep up steady production of drones while still being able to macro up an army.

You could say just build an additional hatch in your main or nat but it is more efficient to make another hatchery at another base so you can start mining as well. Zerg has two options, make a hatch in their base or expand. Most times its expand because of the option to also gather resources.
ffdestiny
Profile Joined September 2010
United States773 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-11-17 02:00:13
November 17 2010 01:59 GMT
#28
It's not essentially true that Zerg needs to be ahead by one base, but it is entirely, objectively true that they need to be in order to ramp up their macro.

EDIT: I'm thinking of switching to Zerg from Terran, it's so much greener! Seriously :D
sjschmidt93
Profile Joined April 2010
United States2518 Posts
November 17 2010 02:02 GMT
#29
The point is they need one more hatch than their opponent. Not necessarily 1 more base, but there's no reason not to lay your third at a mineral patch (though FD almost always goes 3 hatch on 2 base)
My grandpa could've proxied better, and not only does he have arthritis, he's also dead. -Sean "Day[9]" Plott
ThatsNoMoon
Profile Joined March 2010
Mexico344 Posts
November 17 2010 02:02 GMT
#30
Hilarious post well done.
Got neurosis from Artosis cause you bunker rushed my heart GG baby, lets go crazy cause the game's about to start
Kolvacs
Profile Blog Joined June 2010
Canada1203 Posts
November 17 2010 02:02 GMT
#31
The #1 reason that Zerg need to be ahead of any race is because we need the gas more then almost any race.
Once we start any tier 2 or tier 3 production of units, you generally end up with 0 gas.
We NEED those extra gases to be able to efficiently macro.

But in the end, it really just depends on what build order a Zerg player is doing.
FrOsTyy
Profile Joined November 2010
United States125 Posts
November 17 2010 02:06 GMT
#32
This is simply not true in ZvT, if Terran is equal bases, you will be down 12 workers. Full saturation from both players is essnetiall 24 on minerals at each base and 6 on gas, well Terran can have 24 on minerals at each base, 6 on gas and 1 mule per base. Since mules mine uninterupted by scv's, it is equivalent to having an additional 6 scv's per mule. (1 scv mines 5 minerals, 5 x 6= 30, mules mine 30) There for if the Zerg wants to be able to keep up with Terran 2 base vs 2 base, well they can't. You need to have a third base with atleast 12 drones mining to be exactly even.
I'd love to get your help!
WniO
Profile Blog Joined April 2010
United States2706 Posts
November 17 2010 02:10 GMT
#33
great post. one base zerg is quite scary, its strange that zerg is the weakest race yet they are the most willing to expand early.
Angra
Profile Blog Joined May 2009
United States2652 Posts
November 17 2010 02:14 GMT
#34
Zerg don't need to always be a full base up in SC2 like they do in BW, but they definitely need to at least be taking expansions before their opponent. If a Protoss or Terran is taking expansions freely before a Zerg then that's definitely a losing battle.
Cambam
Profile Blog Joined September 2010
United States360 Posts
November 17 2010 02:14 GMT
#35
On November 17 2010 10:56 Acritter wrote:
He's trying to show there's a DIFFERENCE between unit production and economy, and that the reason Zerg usually "needs" an extra base is because they need the unit production, not the economy. He was trying to encourage more conservative play that lets Zerg survive through heavy pressure by keeping their units more centralized and then expanding when they can hold it, rather than trying to hold an expansion they can't or risk losing because they can't keep up in production.


Thank you Acritter! Very well put. I often play against 15 nexus into 6 or 7 gate push and I win all the time by staying on 2 hatch 2 queen and defending with roach/hydra, instead of throwing down a vulnerable 3rd base that gives me unneeded income and production. Then I expand after I hold the push or after my army is big enough to make me feel comfortable expanding and defending.
Cambam
Profile Blog Joined September 2010
United States360 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-11-17 02:18:31
November 17 2010 02:17 GMT
#36
On November 17 2010 11:06 YellowNRed wrote:
This is simply not true in ZvT, if Terran is equal bases, you will be down 12 workers. Full saturation from both players is essnetiall 24 on minerals at each base and 6 on gas, well Terran can have 24 on minerals at each base, 6 on gas and 1 mule per base. Since mules mine uninterupted by scv's, it is equivalent to having an additional 6 scv's per mule. (1 scv mines 5 minerals, 5 x 6= 30, mules mine 30) There for if the Zerg wants to be able to keep up with Terran 2 base vs 2 base, well they can't. You need to have a third base with atleast 12 drones mining to be exactly even.


While your post is partly true, the point you're missing is that terran produces scv's much slower than zerg or protoss. Hence, Zerg can be equal on 2 bases vs a 2 base terran for a certain amount of time. Once the terran reaches full saturation + mules, you're right, the zerg needs to have a 3rd. But there is a substantial amount of time where it is ok to be 2 base vs. 2 base against terran.
Kiarip
Profile Joined August 2008
United States1835 Posts
November 17 2010 02:18 GMT
#37
The #1 reason that Zerg need to be ahead of any race is because we need the gas more then almost any race.
Once we start any tier 2 or tier 3 production of units, you generally end up with 0 gas.
We NEED those extra gases to be able to efficiently macro.

But in the end, it really just depends on what build order a Zerg player is doing.


I feel like as Protoss I need tons of gas. I need a lot of sentries to be safe against roach all-inns which are almost impossible for protoss to scout due to creep.

I need to get a robo eventually or I can auto-loss to burrowed roaches. I can try to get a robo and obs fast instead of sentries (get immortals,) but I still need to expand before I do this, and then I won't be able to get enough defenses if my obs scouts mutas (because robo and immortals is really horrible tech against mutas obvsly.)

So I can't just go robo blindly too fast, so I have to go with the sentries, and probably forge (eventually,) in order to get detection and get upgrades going, so at this point I can't really know if he's going mutas, so the only semi-safe tech option becomes Twilight Council, because robo will still get demolished by mutas (I will just have to put up so many cannons that I should probably just 'gg' and alt-qq.) So I'm going Twilight Council, which is gateway-tech really, so I'm gonna need more gateways, which cost a ton of minerals, so that probably means I coulnd't have gotten my 2nd base gases too fast (obviously i can get them fast if I want to all-in, but if teching and pumping probes it's tough. So now I'm going twilight council tech with little gas because I couldn't save it as I was getting so many sentries fast early on and I've been on 2 geysers for a long time, because I must BOTH pump probes AND add gateways, otherwise I'm either all-in or stupid.

So at some point in this gas-starved mess I have to do a timing attack in order to make sure that he didn't do something super-greedy like take his third before lair, or get absolutely no units, and that's when I get to scout whether it's roaches or mutas, he could still trick me by defending with roaches, but that won't be too bad.

If he's going muta I get blink and keep pumping stalkers, while preparing some kind of push, most likely archon-stalker (quite possibly out of a dark-shrine tech, sicne I won't have money for storm for a while anyways) with good upgrades.

If he's going hydra-roach I need to try to either expand so that I could afford the gas for both immortals and templar, or I need to tech to templar off 2 bases, and hope to do a lot of damage like that (or if he's not expanding for whatever reason, hope to survive like that with just templar/immortal tech coming slowly due to how gas heavy that is on 2 bases, and cannons with zealot/sentry/stalker.


So no, I don't think that Zerg is necessarily the most gas-expensive race. At least not in the mid-game.
Flaunt
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
New Zealand784 Posts
November 17 2010 02:18 GMT
#38
It's how the Zerg race was made. Did you ever play wc3? Human was exactly the same.
What? You seek something? You wish to multiply yourself tenfold, a hundredfold? You seek followers? Seek zeros!
furymonkey
Profile Joined December 2008
New Zealand1587 Posts
November 17 2010 02:18 GMT
#39
The extra gas from 3rd base opens up more options to your army. Especially some tech switch that can change the outcome of a game.

However I don't mind more Zerg players to think like OP, so I can continue to crash them in ladders.
Leenock the Punisher
Nazza
Profile Blog Joined August 2010
Australia1654 Posts
November 17 2010 02:19 GMT
#40
On November 17 2010 10:46 Chill wrote:
lol ive deleted my post like 50 times. its awesome that you write some abrasive rant about misguided people and miss 50% of the argument (cost efficiency of units) and base it on... well nothing. you cite nothing in this thread, just rattle off 1 hatch = nexus and 3 gateways and also make some weird cannons-in-pvp tangential argument.

i dont even know how to begin to rebut this.

first of all, z had to be up one base in brood war, despite having 5 hatches. why is that? can we draw some similar conclusions between SC2 and BW?


Rebuttal by doing a grudge match?

But in all seriousness, it's very hard for a Z player to keep advantage when it's 2 base to 2 base. The Z player tries to delay the 1st expo of the P player for as long as possible, because higher tech units like collosi off 2 base is pretty freakin' scary.
No one ever remembers second place, eh? eh? GIVE ME COMMAND
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