Starcraft

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by DrSpike


It's probably because the face of AOE is AOE2, which was much bigger MP than AOE, and came after SC.

well the reason I got confused was probably that I didnt get AOE (the original) till early 98 or early 99, by which time SC was out.

[lord of the mark]

ok, a request for a hint.

Im in the terran campaign, in the scen where Kerrigan has to bring the Psi transmitter to the confed base.

Spoiler:

it seems impossible to break out of the confed siege, even with the resources you get in the southeast of the map. I suppose one can continue to gather resources and research upgrades, etc - the briefing gave the impression a zerg attack on the confed would happen at some point - or did they just mean it would happen AFTER i get the psi transmitter there? In which case I need to build up enough force for a breakthrough quitte a long task it would seem. Am i missing something? So far the game has seemed fairly intuitive, even to a relatively inexperienced RTS player like me.

[Gamecube64]

Spoiler:

It happens after you get the transmitter there, so just keep at it. The best is yet to come, I think you will be quite intrigued by the game once you play through the end of the expansion (You should really get it, the end of the original seems final, but it believe me, it isn't.), especially if you get the secret mission right before the last mission

[General Ludd]

This isn't related to your question, LoTM.

Spoiler:

I don't remember much about the campaign, but I absolutely loved that mission where you had a small terran outpost on a map that was virtually covered in creep and infested with zerg, and every X amount of minutes the ultralisk hero Torrasque would come out and ravage your base (untill you managed to destroy a particular zerg structure, if I remember correctly). I loved fighting torrasque he could almost wipe me out all by himself because of his high armour, and I had to bunker down and try to build a defense specifically catered to killing him, while still holding off his attacks. It was an uphill struggle the whole way - great fun. I was actually disapointed when his attacks stopped.

[Whoha]

that was broodwars or the scenario Ludd.

[Skanky Burns]

Broodwars. Due to only having a legal copy of broodwars and not the original, I am familiar with the broodwars campaign. And not the original.

[Ari Rahikkala]

Originally posted by lord of the mark
ok, a request for a hint.

Im in the terran campaign, in the scen where Kerrigan has to bring the Psi transmitter to the confed base.

Spoiler:

I thought that that scenario was pretty simple.

You need some token defenses at the bridges north of your base (a bunker with marines, a missile turret and a siege tank should be more than enough). Some in the southeast, too - you should get Kerrigan there fast to lockdown the siege tanks that attack you soonish after the mission starts.

Once you've gotten your defenses up, simply build a bunch of siege tanks - ten or twelve or so is a good number, although even less probably works, and divide them into two groups. Attack in the east by "rolling" your siege tanks: One group, in siege mode, kicks the ass of everything that even considers coming close on the ground while the other moves carefully forward a couple of paces (not so far that the group in siege mode can't support them anymore). Then the responsibilities are reversed: The group in the front goes to siege mode and the group in the back goes to mobile mode, and the rolling continues. Bring along a couple of SCVs to mend any breakage in your tanks and a squad of wraiths (my personal favourite, marines and goliaths work, too) to kill anything that flies.

Oh, and don't forget to start the level by flying the buildings (science lab and starbase, IIRC) near where Kerrigan starts to the safety of your base. Letting the Confeds bomb those is just a waste of resources.

[lord of the mark]

can someone explain siege mode and lockdown to me?

AFAICT, this game isnt as well documented as AOE was. (Of course it hurts that I dont have a manual, since i bought it used in a jewelcase without a manual)

[lord of the mark]

and oh yeah, whats with refineries? It seems that when one runs out of gas, my scvs are able to keep getting gas from it. A bug that was fixed in a later version, maybe?

[Ari Rahikkala]

I hope people don't mind that I can't be bothered to spoilertagise stuff...

Siege mode and lockdown are special abilities of the siege tank and ghost units respectively:

Siege mode converts a siege tank unit into an immobile turret-like thingy. In siege mode the range of the tank's weapon is greatly increased and its power doubled, however, the rate of fire is also reduced a lot (not halved, though, AFAIK). Siege tanks in siege mode are immensely useful for killing almost everything on the ground except groups of fast meleeist units like Protoss zealots, since they shoot explosive shells that can damage more than one unit at once. (A bunch of zealots coming in from all directions can overwhelm a group of siege tanks, and since zealots go right next to whatever they're trying to kill, the siege tanks in siege modecan't kill the zealots without hurting each other. A siege tank in siege mode can also not shoot right next to itself.)

You have to research siege mode to be able to use it in this scenario.

Lockdown makes mechanical units (IIRC most Human and Protoss units except for infantry, no Zerg units though) completely paralysed for a short while - long enough that a couple of marines and bikes (and tanks? I can't remember if you get those at the start here) can kill the siege tanks in the southeast near when they're under lockdown. Lockdown costs energy - each unit has its own energy store which slowly regenerates.

IIRC you don't have ghosts yet in this scenario, and Kerrigan comes with lockdown for free...



On refineries: No, it's no bug. Notice how the gas canisters get smaller when a crater runs out of vespene. It's a sort of a game balance thing, all vespene refining buildings (each race has their own) will produce 2 units of gas per visit even after they've been "emptied". A refiner with vespene reserves produces 8 units per visit.

[J Bytheway]

Originally posted by lord of the mark
ok, a request for a hint.

Spoiler:

I played this one in a manner which I thought was quite in keeping with the mission, even if a little cheesy - I built many SCVs and swarmed them into the base. Two or three survived long enough to bring victory.

I may have had to destroy some of the base defenses first... It's been a long time.

[lord of the mark]

well ari strategy worked,i didnt even use quite that many tanks, though i kept adding a few later.

I noticed the names Tassadar and Tiamat in the game - didnt know these were starcraft games - or is there some other cultural reference im not getting?

[General Ludd]

Originally posted by lord of the mark
well ari strategy worked,i didnt even use quite that many tanks, though i kept adding a few later.

I noticed the names Tassadar and Tiamat in the game - didnt know these were starcraft games - or is there some other cultural reference im not getting?

I'm fairly certain Tassadar is unique to Starcraft. Tiamat is a mythological dragon queen or something, but I don't remember that name being used in Starcraft, where was it?


I think Torrasque (a special ultralisk) might be another dragon name, although I'm not very certain about it. I think think of any other cultural references in the game, off the top of my head.

[Gamecube64]

Ludd- In Starcraft Tiamat is a Zerg brood. Torrasque comes from norse mythology. It means some sort of giant beast, that's all I remember.

[DrSpike]

Originally posted by General Ludd


I'm fairly certain Tassadar is unique to Starcraft.

I think there is also a poster with that name.