Fomos StarCraft II Impressions
Fomos is a major Korean e-sports site which has recently been selected to play StarCraft II in South Korea on the 21st of May. Our friends over at TeamLiquid recently posted a translation of some of the experiences of a couple of Fomos' s users.
From a user post at Fomos:
From another Fomos user:Key points - good game speed, good graphics, and Terran is still awesome.
Graphics were solid. Units and buildings are more conspicuous than they were in the latest Battle Report. Game speed is really fast. Unit speed is comparable to SC1, but once a battle starts, it ends quickly. This is partially due to Zealots and Stalkers having low life points.
One gas is comparable to 0.75 gas in SC1, in terms of macro resource management. Two gas is comparable to 1.5 gases in SC1. In a main base play, one gas is not sufficient for upgrades and/or gas units.
Automatic resources gathering is convenient, and that extra room for control all goes to unit control.
Following is the new scoop on each race and my experience with some strategies:
Terran
- Main base play is really good! It's incomparable to SC1. In SC1, 7 Marines/1 Medic/1 Dropship play is good, but in SC2, 16 Marines/2 Medivac is even better. Without Banelings or Roaches, Zerg is dead to this strategy. Going straight to Lair is dead too. This is due to the presence of Reactor.
- Hot keys: Scan = w, Reactor = o, Tech Lab = a
- Marine's gunfire comes and goes so smoothly that, in terms of appearances, it's hard to distinguish between normal attack and Stim attack.
- Viking has ridiculously long air-to-air shooting range.
Zerg
- Banelings are essential! Lair tech is futile. Locating Zerglings in an arch shape on the top of a ramp is useless.
- Mutalisks are really fast!
- Broodlings have 20 life points, but they look bigger and stronger than Zerglings. My units were suddenly dead when they were attacking buildings at a close range.
- New attack style of Spine Crawlers - instead hitting directly from the ground, something comes up and attacks like a lance. Looks ugly!
- Not much change on Queens and Infested Terran
- Long shooting range of Hydralisks - while attacking with Stalkers and Colossus, Colossus behind Stalkers were easily shot by Hydralisks.
- Queens cost 150 minerals each, so they don't affect the tech tree much.
- Spawning Pool looks good!
Protoss
- Phoenix is really fast, faster than Scourge or upgraded Scouts in SC1. It kills Overlords about 1.5 times faster than Corsair. Overlords will be all dead if Zerg doesn't prepare air-attacking units soon. Moving shot seems difficult; it halts briefly before attacking. Overall, Phoenix is awesome. 3 Gates strategy - doesn't work because of Banelings. Zealots are all dead on the way. But I killed Overlords with Phoenix and won the match.
- Carrier Interceptors don't move as well as in SC1. Instead of swinging by the opponents and attacking, it feels that they are rotating in a circle. Attacking motion should be faster.
- Probe - It has two kinds of beams! When gathering, the beam is kinda purple haze; when attacking, it's about the same in SC1.
- Colossus - it's strong but has short shooting range. It's not easy to use. Warp Prism is not necessary. It's hard to micro this with other units. I pressed "attack" with the Colossus and some other units, and the Colossus climbed up ahead of other units and was killing Drones by itself. I got lucky this time, but at other times the Colossus would have been dead by itself. It kills Hydralisks well, and Hydralisks kill it well, too.
Overall, it's bad for Zerg. In SC1, even if Terran or Protoss does a main base play, Zerg could have gone by with Sunken Colonies defense. That's impossible in SC2. Zerg can go Lair only if Terran or Protoss takes the first expansion. It's really painful to defend 16 Marines/2 Medivacs.
Sources:1. Game Speed
- Overall, speed was good. It’s comparable to SC1.
2. Unit
a. Terran
- Marauder is really good compared to its price and place on tech tree. 120 hit points! For Protoss, it’s hopeless without Zealots with speed upgrade. For Zerg, it’s…f***ed!
b. Zerg
- Game play will differ depending on the use of Queen.
- Up to 5 eggs per Hatchery. So it’s easy to get like 30 Zerglings in a short amount of time.
- Units are kinda weak!
- Against Terran, Zerg will be difficult. Zerg has good quantity, but Marauders can go into Bunkers!
c. Protoss
- Zealots are stronger than expected. 6 Zerglings have a hard time beating 2 Zealots.
- Not that much different from SC1.
3. Resource
- 4 gas/pick. 5 mineral/pick. 6 gatherers at start. Unit count at start – Terran = 11, Zerg/Protoss = 10
- Even with two gases at main base, gas seems to be insufficient. I was glad to see two gases at main base, but then ran out of gas!
- As everyone knows, there is High Yield minerals. I don’t expect there to be a problem with mineral shortage.
- Overall, I feel that gas is important. When and how to get it seems to be important during games.
4. Style
- Overall, it feels similar to SC1, despite the 3D. Good mixture with WarCraft 3 interface. Nonethless, SC1 users will get used to it.
- Macro control doesn’t have as much weight, because of the ability to select many buildings at once. There shouldn’t be a wide range of skills in terms of macro.
5. Overall, it was fun! 90 minutes was a short time. Fun to play, fun to watch.
6. Can SC2 be successful?
- It’s very likely. Fun-to-watch part is especially good. Overall, it seems to be a good sequel to SC1. In S. Korea, it’s gonna be a big success. It’s true that not many Blizzard games have failed in the country, and capturing the fun-to-watch component is well-done. It feels more like SC1 than WarCraft 3.
TeamLiquid
Fomos
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Originally Posted by Schmendrick
Originally Posted by Wayward Meteor
