Starcraft

[vyvyanx]

The other day I was talking to mobbsy about how I would like to watch some really high-level Starcraft games being played. As it happens, the BBC's technology section have just pointed me in the right direction to achieve this, so I downloaded and watched some replays of the recent WCG Starcraft final and semifinal games (available from http://www.worldcybergames.com/). You need the relevant game installed on your computer to watch the replays (they also have a range of other game replays available to watch e.g. Counterstrike, Unreal Tournament).

Some of the strategies involved are astonishing. For instance, all the players (the games were Terran-only) build a barracks very early on, lift it off the ground, and use it for scouting, observing the enemy's base, and irritating the enemy by destroying their concentration and making it hard for them to select units or buildings in their base! I suppose a barracks makes quite a good scout: it's available to build right from the start, it's not enormously expensive, and it has loads of HP so is hard to destroy with early offensive units. The players make no use of bunkers, but extensive use of vultures and their spider mines (often littering the central "crossroads" of the map with dozens of the things). I was particularly impressed with the players' rapid response to sudden attacks on expansions e.g. a bunch of tanks would be dropped into the enemy expansion, and I would expect all to be lost, but within seconds a host of dropships would soar in (which I never noticed the player making in the first place) and a defending host of tanks and goliaths would be in place, wiping out the attack force (until the attacker's own unexpected dropship fleet hove into view to remove them to safety!).

It's certainly given me some interesting ideas.

Comments

[davefish.livejournal.com]

I've not really played much SC, but I am playing lots and lots of Total Annahilation at the minute. I'm generally a big fan of RTS games, so I'm generally willing to look at new and exciting ones. Would you be keen on some multiplayer games at some point?

[vyvyan.livejournal.com]

Ooh, I expect so. I sometimes play SC with razornet and robinbloke. G coordinates it usually, so you might have a word with him about playing with us.

[emperor]

Terran-only games seem to lose some of the fun of the game to me, but what do I know?

I think terrans are the race I'm least effective at, but I'd have thought that missile turrets would put paid to many drop-ship attempts...

[robinbloke.livejournal.com]

Terrans do have the most amusing units for quotes however :)

[emperor]

They don't go *squelch*, though. Nor are they *shiny*.

[acronym.livejournal.com]

The form of Starcraft played in the SGO has almost nothing to do with top-level Starcraft (which is a scarily intense and fast game of macro-management with occasional bursts of really terrifying micromanagement), though.

(Not a criticism: SC at the high level is all about exploiting imbalances to the greatest possible extent, up to and including blatant abuse of the game mechanics.)

[timeplease.livejournal.com]

The good thing about games between real people, mediated by computers, is that it is possible to go and learn all sorts of interesting strategies by observing other players and then try to implement them against the people you play with. The computer mediation gives a level playing field that you wouldn't necessarily find in any other style of game.

[vyvyan.livejournal.com]

I don't think the games have to be terran-only; it's just that the semi-final and final games only involved terrans. Some of the earlier games in the tournament (which I didn't download) appeared to be zerg vs. terran, for instance (though I didn't notice any protoss, at a fairly quick glance).

The players did make a fair amount of use of missile turrets, but the mass drop-ship invasions were usually done sufficiently quickly and with so many ships that the turrets weren't a substantial problem.

[ptc24.livejournal.com]

That's a horrible website, but I've watched a game and it's fascinating! All of those vultures, not a BC in site, and the killing-race at the end.