StarCraft

[Zero]

most ladder games last around 15-25min-ish. 30-40 min games are considered long and anything beyond 1+ hour is considered drawn out and tedious.

[lord of the mark]

well I still havent done MP - my PC did funny things when I tried to get onto battlenet. I suppose I could have pursued it further, here or with Blizzard, but it wasnt really something that important to me.

Instead ive continued with SP. The Zerg scen where you have to stop the dark templars from escaping was pretty good - you could NOT (at least with my level of skill) simply sit there turtle up. My impression was that you not only had to protect the escape sites, but you really did have to come out and attach the Protoss.


Ive since started the next scen, where you have to take a drone to the crystals.


Seems intermediate - you want to move to the second big resource area relatively quickly, but if you come out too fast (whcih i did the first time i played it) you will get weakened -so, i was too weak when the first carrier arrived. Im not sure if you want to turtle up for a long time, or just somewhat longer.

[Cyclotron]

Originally posted by lord of the mark
Instead ive continued with SP. The Zerg scen where you have to stop the dark templars from escaping was pretty good - you could NOT (at least with my level of skill) simply sit there turtle up. My impression was that you not only had to protect the escape sites, but you really did have to come out and attach the Protoss.


Ive since started the next scen, where you have to take a drone to the crystals.


Seems intermediate - you want to move to the second big resource area relatively quickly, but if you come out too fast (whcih i did the first time i played it) you will get weakened -so, i was too weak when the first carrier arrived. Im not sure if you want to turtle up for a long time, or just somewhat longer.

I remember that, when I played SC SP so long ago, these were probably (IMO) the hardest scenarios in the game. It was like a one-two punch of difficulty. They were fun, but hard. The mission that I consider to be most annoying in the whole game is actually one of the late protoss ones; I belive it's the only protoss vs. protoss one, and the enemy protoss will not stop putting every one of your goddamn units in stasis. My units spent, on average, more time in stasis than actually doing stuff. Plus, without real air superiority (you can only get scouts, and one of the protoss camps just spams dragoons), you can't hunt down the arbiters, either.

As far as the scenario you're on, I find that the best way to go about it is to turtle at least until you have 2 groups each of hydras and 'lings, and have a spire so you can build scourges. Cheap units are the best option against the protoss; mutalisks and ultralisks are pretty worthless against scouts and reavers, respectively, which will waste your limited resources. Using the guardian/mutalisk "air crawl" strategy is also probably too resource-intensive for this scenario. If you can take out the enemy reavers, zerglings once upgraded fully are very cost-effective ways of crippling protoss bases, and scouts (and even carriers) are taken down easily by a mass of hydras. Just keep 6 or so scourges handy if the carriers do come; that's the best way to handle the situation.

[DrSpike]

Originally posted by lord of the mark
well I still havent done MP - my PC did funny things when I tried to get onto battlenet. I suppose I could have pursued it further, here or with Blizzard, but it wasnt really something that important to me.

I sent Blizz an email saying you were a leet haxxor with a pirated version of the game and they should in no circumstances let you on to Bnet.

[lord of the mark]

im now on the last Zerg scen, "Full Circle" and THATS hard. I try to expand against the teal Protess to the west, and take those resources, and i get hit before im quite ready by yellow carriers. This is a map with lots of minerals, and I think the strategy here is to turtle up for quite some time, using lots of spore colonies. I thought it was worth expanding for the V gas, but after restarting and trying a second time, ive come to the conclusion that V gas source starts the scen depleted, so its not worth it. Better not to expand till youre good and ready, and close to out of minerals. Websites suggest using guardians+hydras.

I prefer fewer and stronger units, cause the interface (max 12 units in a formation) makes that easier.

[Whoha]

taking out the toss guy is fairly tough, once you've done that the level is for all intent and purposes over since the terran ai isn't so great.


you must learn the art of the band select/ attack move technique if you are to advance, but 400 zerglings would die against the toss setup so that level is not the place to learn it.

[Cyclotron]

Generally speaking, hydras + guardians is the best way to take out the protoss in those advanced scenarios. I find that the terran air sucks enough that you can go mutas + guardians to avoid siege tanks, unless they have valkyries, in which case you avoid mutas like the plague.

[lord of the mark]

finished that scen, with hydras and guardians. Was one of the Archons I killed Tassadar? Happened so fast, didnt notice.

Now almost done with first Protoss scen.

[Cyclotron]

Originally posted by lord of the mark
finished that scen, with hydras and guardians. Was one of the Archons I killed Tassadar?

Nope. You'll be seeing more of him soon.

[DrSpike]

[lord of the mark]

Yup, Ive met Tassadar again. Im now in the third Protoss scenario, and im hoping to get this wrapped up soon. I trust there will be a clever ending involving both Tassadar and Kerrigan, whom I havent seen for a while.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by lord of the mark
Yup, Ive met Tassadar again. Im now in the third Protoss scenario, and im hoping to get this wrapped up soon. I trust there will be a clever ending involving both Tassadar and Kerrigan, whom I havent seen for a while.

well i got to see Raynor again. Gad, this is getting tedious.

[Unspeakable Horror]

Tass

[lord of the mark]

I finally finished the scen where you find and rescue Tass and Raynor. First time ive seen a maze scenario turn into a build scenario. Clever, but the building was tedious. Havent played much, as my gaming time has mainly gone for Victoria.

Id actually give this game up now, but im obsessive enough to want to finish. I hope the story is worth it.

[lord of the mark]

Ok, ive finally figured out an exploit that should make this scenario winnable.

[Whoha]

all the cheats?

[DrSpike]

Originally posted by lord of the mark
Ok, ive finally figured out an exploit that should make this scenario winnable.

haxxor!

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Whoha
all the cheats?

Not a cheat, an exploit.

Use Tass's hallucinate spell on one of the zealots, send them both (Tass and a fake zealot) toward where some zerglings are buried, with the Fake zealot well in the lead. The Zerglings attack the fake Zealot, Tass does Psionic Storm, then runs away. Wait for Tass to recharge, and repeat as needed. It wont work for all the opponents on this maze, but it will keep the zealots alive and intact longer than otherwise, and probably make it easier to keep the Marines I pick up.

[Whoha]

thats not an exploit, if you want to take 5 hours to do the level go right ahead

but you will have to stop and rest to build up shields, send hallucinations out to scout, and so on. There are plenty of units in the level for you to pick up though.

[Cyclotron]

The key to that scenario is a pile of scouts and an archon. The archon goes first; if anyone pops up, the scouts zip in and fry them. The archon almost never dies, and neither the archons nor the scouts can be targeted by the queen's "spawn broodling" ability, which the zerg seem to spam in that level.

EDIT: Oh wait, that's for the "find Tass" one. For the "Tass and two zealots" one, yeah, I did the same thing. There are quite a few infested terrans in that one.

[DrSpike]

Originally posted by lord of the mark


Not a cheat, an exploit.

Use Tass's hallucinate spell on one of the zealots, send them both (Tass and a fake zealot) toward where some zerglings are buried, with the Fake zealot well in the lead. The Zerglings attack the fake Zealot, Tass does Psionic Storm, then runs away. Wait for Tass to recharge, and repeat as needed. It wont work for all the opponents on this maze, but it will keep the zealots alive and intact longer than otherwise, and probably make it easier to keep the Marines I pick up.

That's a really noob exploit.

[Jon Miller]

MP is where Starcraft is at

JM

[Whoha]

Heres 4 broodwars replays from a lan party I was just at that show everything wrong with big game hunters zerg haters beware, the first replay may cause... disquiet.

[lord of the mark]

I dont think i'll ever be anything but a newb at Starcraft.

I finally finished the maze and got Zeratul.

Im now on the next one, which seems to be another turtle and build scenario.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Cyclotron


I remember that, when I played SC SP so long ago, these were probably (IMO) the hardest scenarios in the game. It was like a one-two punch of difficulty. They were fun, but hard. The mission that I consider to be most annoying in the whole game is actually one of the late protoss ones; I belive it's the only protoss vs. protoss one, and the enemy protoss will not stop putting every one of your goddamn units in stasis. My units spent, on average, more time in stasis than actually doing stuff. Plus, without real air superiority (you can only get scouts, and one of the protoss camps just spams dragoons), you can't hunt down the arbiters, either.

Yup, that would be the one right after the maze. I actually ended up cheating to get through that one - not using an exploit, actually cheating. It was just too
boring and annoying anotherwise.

The next one was not that bad, even with the dreaded carrier duels. At least I had carriers.

Im on the penultimate scenario, which is against the Zerg, and i get arbiters.

[Cyclotron]

Originally posted by lord of the mark
Yup, that would be the one right after the maze. I actually ended up cheating to get through that one - not using an exploit, actually cheating. It was just too
boring and annoying anotherwise.

The next one was not that bad, even with the dreaded carrier duels. At least I had carriers.

Im on the penultimate scenario, which is against the Zerg, and i get arbiters.

I also cheated to get through that one.

In my opinion, what made SC great was asymmetry; the units for each side are very different, each race approaches victory a certain way, each race has different strategies and tactics. This was what made it much, much better than WC2, a game I detested. That Protoss vs. Protoss scenario puts you up against an enemy with your exact same capability, except bigger and with with more advanced units. Your only hope is to adopt a zerg-like strategy using the protoss - outbuild and overwhelm - which, while quick and easy with the zerg, is mind-blowingly dull and frustrating with a race that isn't at all designed for that strategy. It's also really hard; the computer is generally better than you at producing units quickly.

For some reason, the terran vs. terran missions never bothered me as much, even though most of those missions was won by tank slog - move the group of siege tanks up, siege mode, wait awhile, tank mode, continue to edge up, siege mode, wait awhile...

[lord of the mark]

I finally finished this game.

Interesting, as most said it would be. Both as to gameplay and story.

Im not so overwhelmed as to want to play any additional campaigns, or random map scenarios, or try to figure out how to get on battlenet to play MP, much less go buy the xpack.

But im not disappointed in the value I got for my money, and dont think i would have been even if id paid more.

If anything theres TOO much in the SP campaign. 30 scenarios, each one of which was pretty long, just became a slog after awhile. Id say 10 terran scenarios, say five Zerg scens, and five Protoss scens for a total of 20 would have been more than enough. I suppose one could say each scen was different, but at some point it felt like they were more showing off what the scen editor could do than they were advancing the story. Though I did like the (gameplay) twist of the last scenario.

[Cyclotron]

Never actually finished the very last one. I had almost won, then the game crashed, and my save was corrupted - the only time that has ever happened. I cheated for the end video.

[DrSpike]

Originally posted by lord of the mark
I finally finished this game.

Interesting, as most said it would be. Both as to gameplay and story.

Im not so overwhelmed as to want to play any additional campaigns, or random map scenarios, or try to figure out how to get on battlenet to play MP, much less go buy the xpack.

But im not disappointed in the value I got for my money, and dont think i would have been even if id paid more.

If anything theres TOO much in the SP campaign. 30 scenarios, each one of which was pretty long, just became a slog after awhile. Id say 10 terran scenarios, say five Zerg scens, and five Protoss scens for a total of 20 would have been more than enough. I suppose one could say each scen was different, but at some point it felt like they were more showing off what the scen editor could do than they were advancing the story. Though I did like the (gameplay) twist of the last scenario.

Complaining there is too much game?

[Jon Miller]

I never completed the original game either.. my harddrive crashed.

I did play a lot of MP, and I still think that for Versus MP that it is the best RTS game out there.

Jon Miller