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Calgary25961 Posts
I see a lot of threads lately that are "Why did I suck in this game?", and then the game is so bad that you can't give a specific reason because there are too many. I'm going to give tl.net the advice I give everyone who asks me to watch replays, and hopefully it will do some help to someone.
In order of decending important, you should be thinking about the following things:
1. Always be Doing Something.
As I see it, there's only ever three things to be done: Attacking, expanding, and teching. If you're not doing one of the three, you're doing nothing. I see this a lot in low level replays; people tech quick to Lurkers and then sit at home with them. They don't go Hive, they don't expand and they don't try to break their opponents expansion - they do nothing.
By the same logic, a containment is doing you no good if nothing is going on beyond that containment. If you're not holding up for more expansions or more tech, that containment is pointless.
You should note that Teching means teching NOW, not in 5 minutes. If you're "going to be" teching, you're still not doing anything.
There are two times that I can think of when this wouldn't apply. Those are the time when you are building up for an attack, and once the late game kicks in and resources are getting low.
Try to think about this during the game. Make sure you're always doing something.
2. What's your underlying game plan?
It's ZvT. Instead of powering Drones off of 3 Hatcheries, you got Lurkers quickly off 2 Hatcheries. Now what? Why would you use this build? Either to break his natural, or secure more expansions for yourself. It doesn't make sense now to add many Hatcheries and get many Zerglings. If that was your plan you should have added the Hatcheries before Lair.
This happens all the time to one of my friends. He's good, but whenever I watch a replay he needs help with, I ask him "Why'd you do that?" and "What's your gameplan?". He can never answer. You should be able to watch your own replays and be able to explain your plan to yourself.
3. Adapt
Now that you stole build orders from replays to satisfy #2, it's time to adapt. In ZvT, it's 3 base (2 gas) Zerg versus 2 base (2 gas) Terran. You were planning on going Hydralurk until you scouted Terran with 6 Barracks and 2 Factories. You're going to make life easier if you switch to Lurkerling.
Sometimes you have to use Ultras. Sometimes it makes more sense to use Defilers. Sometimes it makes more sense to use both. Sometimes you don't need Hive tech (rare). If you feel Terran is going fast Tanks and you just stick with your 3 Sunkens and Spire, you deserve to lose because you didn't adapt.
So, have your general cookie cutter builds, but you have to stray from them when you see Terran went 1 Vulture into 2 Port Wraith, or basically an unorthodox build.
Sorry all my examples are ZvT just because I have that on my mind for some reason.
4. Macro & Micro
Now that you've done 1-3, you should start worrying about macro and micro. I see a lot of people starting with macro when people ask for help. I think it's much more important to be "always doing something" than having good macro, that's why I put these so far down the list.
So, if you watch your replay and you think you did all 1-4, then ask for help. I can pretty much guarentee that if you are always doing something, following a game plan, and adapting your build to counter his, you won't have a replay that you still need help with.
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Baltimore, USA22250 Posts
If you're looking for generic advice to give out, I might suggest a post Shockwave[xpow] made that got stickied in the B.net forums;
Dear reader,
Here's a compilation of tips for beginners who are interested in learning basic principles behind Starcraft. The post is long but you don't need to read every part to get started. Just look at whichever sections are relevant to what you want to learn; e.g. the latter half of the post is mostly just explanation of theory that you may or may not be interested in. As a general caveat, there are exceptions to every rule, so I'm not claiming these are always the right thing to do. They are just good principles to follow absent any compelling reason not to; as you get better, you'll start recognizing when to deviate from certain rules.
THE "BIG FIVE" BASIC PRINCIPLES
Here are the five basic skills that I think every new player should start out trying to get decently good at.
1) Always be building peons (SCV/drone/probe) from your town hall (town hall (CC/hatchery/Nexus) and put the peons to use on minerals/gas. Don't ever stop. Your CC/Nexus should always be flashing, your main hatchery should always have at least one drone building from larva. If you need to queue up peons, do it, but try to avoid having to do that since it ties up resources. When you get gas, typically put a maximum of 4 peons on it if unless it's far away from your hall.
2) Never be held back by your supply limit. Always build supply early enough in advance so that you're not waiting for your next depot/overlord/pylon. E.G. Generally you should start building your first depot/overlord/pylon when your supply reads 8. In later game, build it much earlier if you're pumping units faster.
3) Try to keep your resources as close to zero as possible by spending whatever income you're getting. If you have a barraks, make sure it's always making marines. If it's making marines and you have leftover money in the bank, build another barraks or tech, expand, etc. Just don't let your money sit in the bank.
4) Dont make too much static defense (cannons/bunkers/turrets/sunkens/etc.). Build those minimally. E.G. 2-3 cannons is about enough for each base you have, use mobiles for the rest of your defense. If you follow steps 1-3 well, you should not have to build any static defense early. In recreational play, never incorporate an early sunken/cannon/bunker into your regular build, you do not need it. So, do not start off building a forge and cannons with Toss, make a gateway and zealots instead. If you're losing because of following this advice, ask on the forum and we'll help you figure out what you're doing wrong.
5) Scout early. You'll want to use either a peon or an overlord if you're Zerg. When your supply reads 10, take a peon off your resources and send him around the map. Just hold down shift and click on various spots on the minimap.
LEARNING THE GAME
I would recommend the following steps to actually getting better at the game, working your way up from first computer opponents to real ones.
1) Go through the single player campaigns, at least the Terran one, they're fun and they teach you various basics. Make sure you log onto b.net at least once so you can get patched to the latest version. Don't worry too much about strategy when going through this; e.g. you may not be able to practice the Big Five in some missions if resources are limited or you're forced to build a lot of static defense to survive.
2) Next, try playing some 1on1's against the computer. I would pick simple maps like ladder/LostTemple or Challenger. Play until you can beat the computer consistently. Stick with one race, I recommend Protoss because they have the simplest build/economy structure but any race is fine.
3) Then try playing 1on1 against the computer without building any static defense until you can consistently beat it. Try to beat the computer as fast as possible, play aggressively and send your first units to attack when you get them, don't let any units sit in your base doing nothing but instead be constantly on the offensive.
4) Get online and play against real opponents. Start by creating "1on1 newbies only" games and kick out anyone who has an appreciable record, or not if you don't mind getting slaughtered. If you lose, save the replay, watch it, and figure out what your opponent did that beat you. Then try doing what he did against your next opponent. This way you're always copying people who are better than you. If you need practice, you can always play against the comp and get good at executing your learned strategy until you're comfortable with it.
5) If you can't get online and are creaming the computer regularly, try adding more computers. 1on2 should be manageable without having to build any static defense. If you can't do 1on2, do 2on3 where you ally yourself with one computer.
6) If you have specific questions about strats or things you've seen, post them in this forum. Do not post very generic questions like "How do I get better at Terran?", but rather stuff like, "My opponent made a bunch of wraiths in my last TvT game, I have no idea why but he did beat me, can you explain that strat?" Do not post those kinds of questions in this thread; this post's intention is to give a broad overview of general strats versus race-specific help such as counters and build orders.
THEORY OF ECONOMICS
Let me explain some of the rationale behind the Big Five now. For basics, my philosophy is that economic management is the key to any RTS and thus should be the first thing you learn how to get good at. If you can get money in as fast as possible, and spend it as fast as possible, then you'll do pretty well, and that's what the Big Five focuses on. If on the other hand, your opponent attacks you and you die with 1000 minerals in the bank, that's wasted money that could have e.g. been another 10 zealots or what not and you may have survived the attack. Making peons constantly means that you are getting resources as fast as possible. Peons make up for their cost very quickly. There is a limit to the number of useful peons you can have especially on smaller maps since only one peon can mine minerals at once, but I wouldn't worry about that for now. Most newer players forget to make peons and thus never come anywhere close to reaching that point. If you are oversaturated, it's no big deal at the recreational level.
At recreational level, I also believe it is more important to make sure you're spending your money on SOMETHING, versus fretting about the best unit or tactic to use. We can talk about specific tactics for race matchups, but that's more advanced and is likely to cause you to focus more on advanced stuff versus making sure you have the basics. I could e.g. teach you one tactic that can win you most of your newbie games with little effort, but that doesn't buy you much in the long run. Instead, for now, just make sure you build anything with your money so that it doesn't sit around in your bank account. Good things to spend your money on include: 1) more units 2) more unit-producing buildings like rax/gateway/hatcheries 3) upgrades 4) expansions (building a CC/Nexus/hatchery near another group of minerals).
For Protoss, for example, you'll start off making probes and probably build your first gateway. When that gateway is done, start making zealots out of it while you're still making probes and pylons. At some point, you'll have enough money to build another gateway, an assimilator for gas, or a cybernetics core for tech. Doesn't matter what you make, just choose one of those and build it. In later game, the principle is usually:
1) Look at your production buildings, make sure they're all making something (zealot, goon, carrier, whatever).
2) If they are all making units and you still have enough money for another production building, start on one.
It's not uncommon in later game for you to have 10 gateways by this principle, especially if you're playing on large maps with lots of resources.
As a general principle, try to avoid queueing for creating units as Terran/Toss, because this ties up resources. If you queue up 5 SCVs in your CC, that means there is 4 SCV's worth of minerals that's waiting to be used but is not actively being used, this is 200/0 worth of resources that could be going towards your next barraks or supply depot immediately. For a more extreme example, suppose you have one starport with 5 battlecruisers queued up. Four of those battlecruisers aren't actually being built so the queue is just tying up resources. You should instead have 3 starports building 1 battlecruiser each.
Queues are a convenience but have their drawbacks. In late game, you can't be producing at 100% efficiency such that you start a new unit everytime the previous is finished, and you'll probably have some surplus of resources so queueing may not tie up your resources significantly. But at least in early game, try to never have more than 2 units, even if that, in your production queue.
SCOUTING
As you do get better and start figuring out what to build, that's when scouting becomes important. You send an early scout out for two reasons. One is to start getting to know the map, even from basics such as whether you're on a land or island. The second is to find your opponent's base and get some idea of what he's doing, such as what race he is. In advanced play, recon is very important, as most decisions are not made blindly. Heavy emphasis is placed on figuring out some way to take a peek at what your opponent is doing and then to adjust what you're doing based on that.
STATIC DEFENSE
Static defense is all structures that have an attack. A common question is, "Why not build a lot of cannons and static defense? Cannons are great units -- they detect, fire at land and air, have awesome range, and straight up will kill units better than most other Toss units for the same cost." Cannons are deliberately made better than mobile units where the tradeoff is that they DON'T MOVE. You cannot beat your opponent by having a well defended base. A good opponent will see this and just leave you alone while taking expansion spots around the rest of the map. Remember that at your level of play, economics has a huge impact on winning or losing. If your opponent has 2 bases and you have 1, it doesn't matter how well defended your base is, you're going to lose in the long run.
Sadly, playing single player missions tends to encourage mass static defense. Building cannons works great against the computer because it'll just mindlessly throw forces at your cannons and get them slaughtered. Some single player missions are in fact very hard to beat without building static defense. This encourages very bad habits for multiplayer. The computer isn't smart enough to figure out that it should just ignore your cannons. You can build a bunch of tanks and bunkers and then go out to lunch, and when you come back the computer will have no units and no resources because it wasted them all against your defenses. Players will not do this, though.
Getting more concrete, suppose you start out building 3 cannons early. That's great defense and your opponent will see this when he scouts you. This is good news for him though because he knows you've been spending money on defense versus mobile units so he's safe from being attacked by you. 3 cannons is a bit more cost than a Nexus, so this means that if you both are getting resources at the same rate, he can for that same money plop down a Nexus at the nearest resource node for free. Now you're essentially going to be fighting one base against two, and you will lose unless out of some miracle.
MAPS
I will now address the issue of map choice, as an addendum in response to comments below. My intention is not to make a strong statement that will cause controversy, but to share some knowledge that can help you make informed decisions.
There are generally two broad classifications of maps, so-called normal maps versus money maps. Money maps have overwhelming resources, enough that you will never have to worry about expanding or running dry. This includes zero clutter map, big game hunters, and fastest maps. Money maps simplify the game in many ways because you can focus just on one base strategies. And it makes some parts of basic skills more challenging because, for example, it's much hardeer to keep your resources near zero and it's not atypical to max out on 200 supply and still have near infinite amount of resources. On the other hand, money maps tend to reward strategies that are typically not feasible in other games, such as turtling (building a lot of static defense) and teching to capital units such as carriers, i.e. "turtle & tech".
If you folow the Big Five principle on those maps, you should still have an advantage over someone who does not because e.g. he builds many cannons. But, it is far easier at a beginner level to win by turtle & tech than to play conventionally, so money maps tend to favor these kinds of tactics at that level.
The type of map and experience you choose for yourself is up to you, and e.g. the vast majority of recreational Starcraft players prefer money maps because those simply the game to an extent that they don't have to learn some aspects of the Big Five. My only strong recommendation is that you start with land maps, since island maps add a whole new level of complexity and at beginner level usually involve memorizing some canned build order and attack regardless of the situation.
RUSHING
One of the frustrating parts about Starcraft is learning to defend against rushes. Even new players can learn some build order that will work against most players since some attacks are easier to execute than defend against. A common one is a zergling rush where you don't make any drones and just build an early spawning pool, this is a "do or die" attack but it often works against recreational players. If you follow the Big Five, you should be well equipped to deal with any early game attack. If you are attacked before you have many units, use your workers for defense. If you are attacked and have units but don't have enough, the solution is NEVER to build static defense. Watch the replay and see how he got so many units, it's likely that he either has better economy management, or more unit producing structures. For example, if you build a cybernetics core and gas for tech and he builds 2 gateways, then you will probably get run over by superior forces. Just modify your build order next time so that you don't tech as fast, but instead make early units. Just remember, there is NEVER a need a to build static defense to stop early rushes in recreational level. You should always be able to adjust your build or use workers.
ADVANCED PLAY
If you want to learn more about advanced tactics, I would recommend watching replays on sites such as WGTour ( http://www.wgtour.com/rep.php?datab=broodwar ). Just click on the replays and save them to your "maps" directory. Watch how the pros play, and ask questions here about things you don't understand and we'll be happy to explain.
CONCLUSIONS
Overall, pay attention to your resources and learn by watching your opponent's replays when you get beat. Ask questions here for anything you're confused about. Check out the Starcraft Compendium ( http://www.battle.net/scc/ ) since it overall has pretty good advice. Get good at the Big Five. Watch your replays afterward to make sure you are actually building peons nonstop and that you're not letting money stockpile. Good luck.
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Nice writeup that I'm sure could help a lot of low-level players. The only complaint I have is that I believe you should also add massing to the things to do in a game, so it would be attacking, expanding, teching and massing (or you could just merge expanding and massing and call it macro).
And just because you followed these steps it doesn't mean that you'll never have a replay that you could use some pointers on. Just because a person has a game-plan and is able to see how his opponent countered it, doesn't mean that the person will be able to figure out what the proper reaction would be to what his opponent was doing in that particular game.
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is awesome32269 Posts
Links is not working for me Ly ; [ (dling file pops up)
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Baltimore, USA22250 Posts
On October 04 2006 10:04 IntoTheWow wrote:
Links is not working for me Ly ; [ (dling file pops up)
Yeah, wasn't very link friendly... just put the whole post there now.
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How about if you are not a lower level player and just want help with a specific game?
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Calgary25961 Posts
Well, honestly, I think ETT killed the point of my post.
ETT's post is for people who aren't good enough to play PGT, and want to get to be D level gamers.
My post is for people, level D - B who are having trouble improving. You shouldn't need help with a specific game, that's my point. If you do all 4 of those things well, then you just were playing someone better than you, and you need to do everything better. You really should be able to watch your own replays, go through the points and figure out which one you screwed up on. It's not hard.
If you didn't know Mines > quick Defilers, or HydraLurk > SK Terran, that's one thing. I see so many threads of people asking for help and it's so obvious what you did wrong. This is trying to get people to be able to figure out their own mistakes as they're happening.
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As I see it, there's only ever three things to be done: Attacking, expanding, and teching. If you're not doing one of the three, you're doing nothing.
Um what? A major reoccuring problem i have with general guides like this is that they are simply wrong on so many points when tryign to be helpful. They might be helpful, but they are sill wrong.
So always be doing something. And somethig is either attacking, expanding, or teching. So building probes is not something. Defending is not something. Buildign supply is not something. Move action with units is not something, and so on. Simply too simplistic.
Its not my intent to flame or anything like that, im just trying to point out one thing that i see all the time in writings like this that i dislike intensely.
-edit 500th post. 
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LOL CHECK OUT THE STARCRAFT COMPENDIUM LOL.
Last time I was there (like 2 years ago) the advice was just terrible. LOL.
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On October 04 2006 14:40 Knickknack wrote: [removed quote within quote]Um what? A major reoccuring problem i have with general guides like this is that they are simply wrong on so many points when tryign to be helpful. They might be helpful, but they are sill wrong. So always be doing something. And somethig is either attacking, expanding, or teching. So building probes is not something. Defending is not something. Buildign supply is not something. Move action with units is not something, and so on. Simply too simplistic. Its not my intent to flame or anything like that, im just trying to point out one thing that i see all the time in writings like this that i dislike intensely. -edit 500th post.
no, those 3 points (taken generally) cover it fairly well, although i think macro should be added to it.
probe production and such falls under expanding(economics)
any kind of harass/attack is under attacking
tech is obvious
which leaves unit production/infrastructure, which is why macro should be added to those points.
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Calgary25961 Posts
Idra and Mora seem to be the only ones getting the point. So many people want advice like "build more probes", "always build units", etc. I'm saying that should be your least concern. Concern 1 is staying generally active, 2 is making sure you're making the right units, 3 is adaptive your game plan; Finally after all that make sure you are always making units and microing properly.
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BW is an easy game, after 2-3 years of playing it :D
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Its clear to me that glancing at minimap is something that can be done, and can help at times, but does not fall under attacking/expanding/macro/micro/tech. It would fall under something like, say, concentration, or game management. How much more clear can i make my point??
1) Always do something / Staying generally active (slighly better wording)
Remaining active is something ild say just about all players realize they should be doing. Being faster and getting more done though is very interrelated to undetrstanding of game plan/macro/micro/etc. I'ld say a sc noob playign at 50 apm and not knowing anything about the progaming sceen or whats considered 'good' play would say they are generally active. Speed improves with pracice and understanding. Good tip overall, but not something that i see helping players improve significantly when you tell them this. Its not remaining active thats important at all anyway, its doing important actions. Depending on circumstances, just telling players that they are not building nearly enough peons may be much more helpful.
2) Game plan / Make right units
As you realize many people are simply not able to explain their game plan to themselves because they are often lacking chunks of what to do. This supports posting reps to have people more knowledageable then yourself comment on them.
3) Adapt game plan
This is important, but again, better players are easily goign to be able to point out more/better things then poorer players.
4) Micro & Macro
These things are interrelated to the things above, which is why I am uncomfortable assining these as the least important aspects.
You shouldn't need help with a specific game, that's my point. If you do all 4 of those things well, then you just were playing someone better than you, and you need to do everything better. You really should be able to watch your own replays, go through the points and figure out which one you screwed up on. It's not hard.
I like the idea that you based this all off of. If one is doing XYZ things well then one should not require help in order to improve. This can be seen as guidelines to thinking and improving on your ones own. But, as i have typed above, one may improve faster by askign for advice, due to the fact that players who are more knowledgeable are commenting on your replay. Nonetheless, i think it is a good inititive, and urge you to continue it and improve upon it. Thats why i decided to even start typing this post up in the first place despite the somewhat disagreeable atmosphere.
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Nice post. I myself prefer to improve on the raw mechanics of the game first, like macro and micro until they are at a state of near perfection. Then I'd start to think about the higher level aspect of the game such as timing, adaptation, manipulation and game flow etc.
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Excellent post. This is really useful, and when I see crazy threads in the Strategy section I'll post a link to here. You've single-handedly improved the quality of the TL.Net strategy forum! Thanks~
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uh no. the 1. thing for me, is
How can I win this game?
which leads to attacking, macroing, microing, expanding teching.
if you dont have the desire to win, then youll never improve k thx.
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all Zerg players should visit bratt~Tsunamis old homepage.. dont know if it works still. So much gosu stuff to learn about there! Recommended ;-)
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I also like the idea of this post. I have so many people asking me "How do I get better? Plz watch rep." And when I watch the rep, I can't really say anything other than "Get better." But how do I say that without sounding rude?
Also to add, I'd like to request people asking for advice to watch their own reps before posting them. During the game, there are things that you don't see, and sometimes you're just like "Whoa, why did I lose?" But when you watch the replay, things become a lot more clear, and you can pinpoint exactly why you lost (things like bad macro, bad unit choice, bad build order etc. are much more obvious when watching than it is when you are actually behind the mouse and keyboard playing)
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EPT
