StarCraft

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Elok
This is my first experience with the AI players choosing to occasionally harass each other with ineffectual attacks instead of ganging up on me wholesale.

/me is shocked

Originally posted by Elok
I've also recently discovered the joys of Nuking. I had formerly dismissed the practice as wasteful, which it sort of is, but it's also really fun.

I don't like messing with Ghosts - and the computer can see you regardless. Or so it seems to me.

Originally posted by Elok
Do you suppose that kind of stupidity was intentionally programmed in to keep the computer from using its physical advantages successfully, or did they just not bother with a good AI for the campaigns? Probably a little of both.

What AI? Not sure about Brood Wars, but the original never had an AI to speak of.

[Elok]

Maybe it can "see" them, but it certainly won't attack you if you're cloaked, and if you attack while cloaked it'll use the comsat before fighting back, plus it will collect forces as though the invisible units were not there provided you don't attack or otherwise clue them in to your existence. So for all intents and purposes, in my experience, it can't.

Ghosts and nuking are of course impractical--200 minerals, 200 gas, tying up eight supply, plus building the silo and taking up space next to a CC that could have had a comsat. It's just FUN to sit there nervously as the red dot flashes, waiting for what seems like forever for the Ghost to be freed so you can scramble the hell out of there and watch it all go boom. Even when you know the AI won't even try to catch you, the tension of waiting somehow makes it fun.

[lord of the mark]

Well, you know they aren't anywhere on the platform with the Zerg. Can't you just ComSat the map systematically? It's been a while since I played NG, but I seem to recall you only have to wipe out all the Protoss buildings, and those don't move.

I think the problem is that I moved my starport after having built a control tower (it was too close to the Zerg, and whenever I launched a ship, it would hit the Zerg) The control tower is sitting by itself, and is colored blue on the minimap, the color of the Protoss buildings. And of course I cant destroy my own building.

I don't get the bit about the hamster. What's that a reference to?

A character named Minsc in Baldurs Gate.

[Whoha]

no its neutral blue, thats not the building you are looking for.

post a save here.

[Elok]

The control tower is sitting by itself, and is colored blue on the minimap, the color of the Protoss buildings. And of course I cant destroy my own building.

Actually, you can, just not with physical attacks. A couple of Yamatos would do the trick nicely, or a nuke if you felt like wasting one. Well, I haven't tried, but I assume you could. I discovered that damaging abilities can in fact target Critters (a fact I used to flush the Scantids out of my base last scenario), and then accidentally shot one of my own refineries while trying to Yamato one of the SOBs. I should have just irradiated it, but the battlecruiser was closer and I wasn't planning to attack with it soon, so...anyway, if you can blast your own, you should be able to blast abandoned ones as well. Or you could move the starport back, or build another one.

But Whoha's right, it doesn't matter. Abandoned add-ons are neutral, the same as critters. They certainly don't count as belonging to the Protoss. They probably just have a single pylon hidden in some corner somewhere.

On the subject of killing critters, I remember reading somewhere that there's an easter egg in the game somewhere that will make one species of critter explode if you continually click on it. My source said Ursadons would go boom after fifteen clicks in rapid succession. Didn't work. Anybody know if this was just a really lame hoax, or if there were just some details wrong?

[GeneralTacticus]

What do you mean, you can't destroy your own building? All you have to do is select the "Attack" option from the orders menu, and target the building you want to get rid of. No need to waste nukes or Yamato blasts when simple gunfire does the trick just as well.

Oh, and about the critters - I believe the equivalents in one of the Warcraft games will explode if you click on them enough. Maybe soembody got confused.

[Elok]

Oh, so they just wanted to save the plain right-click for "follow." Can you Attack critters too?

And, come to think of it, it's kind of odd that the Zerg can't assimilate the critters. Essential for reasons of gameplay balance, but still odd. Probably there's been a scenario based on that concept.

[GeneralTacticus]

Yes, you can Attack critters and kill them. I think the reason why right-clicking on a friendly building or unit doesn't cause you to attack them is fairly obvious; the last thing you want is to accidentally destroy your own building with an incautious right-click.

[Whoha]

I think it has more to do with right clicking trying to find the appropriate action. If you right click on a transport the unit will try to enter, on a mineral patch with a worker, gathering, on an enemy an attack, and so on.

[Cyclotron]

It is most certainly true that, if you left-click on a critter enough, they blow up. It looks like a ghost's nuke went off, but of course, nobody else is harmed by the explosion (the critter dies, obviously).

[Elok]

How many frigging times to you have to click the thing? I went after it with my finger twitching like a crackhead in withdrawal and nothing happened.

[Whoha]

15 I think.

[Cyclotron]

If you miss once, just once, you have to start all over. They must be consecutive clicks.

[Maniac]

Originally posted by Elok
And, come to think of it, it's kind of odd that the Zerg can't assimilate the critters.

Dark Archons can mind control them though.

[Elok]

Yeah, I noticed that. I took over a Kakaru once to make it scout for me, only to have the thing revert to its "wander mindlessly" mode when I left it along, and get shot down. But it did reveal a good portion of the map first.