Supersonic SC2 Q&A

[Eligor]

Thanks a lot for the info. My worries about Carriers and Mutalisks are pretty much laid to rest now.

The Mothership sounds like it just needs some additional modicum of power to be an adequately useful unit.

Did you get a chance to use the Brood Lord? And if so, how does its attack mechanic feel and how deadly is it compared to the old Guardian?

[supersonic]

I'm thinking the MULE isn't actually supposed to be used one at a time.

It'll probably be more beneficial to save up energy for scans, and when you hit maxium energy with your orbital commands, quickly drop down multiple MULES to get a huge boost in economic gain, or just to set up an expansion.

Calling down 1 MULE at a time is just like building 2 temporary SCVs at a time.

That could be true, but w/o it the Terran are even more behind in the Econ game, even if it's used all at once for a boost in the end it's all still the same minerals total.

[supersonic]

Thanks a lot for the info. My worries about Carriers and Mutalisks are pretty much laid to rest now.

The Mothership sounds like it just needs some additional modicum of power to be an adequately useful unit.

Did you get a chance to use the Brood Lord? And if so, how does its attack mechanic feel and how deadly is it compared to the old Guardian?

No I did not get a chance to get any Brood Lords, just because I thought since I could control 12+ Mutalisk at a time, you basically don't need much else, at least not for anti ground -the Thor which was not a problem because you can easily jump around it. and any problems I had with anti air units were solved by the fact that zerg have 7 larva at each hatchery and I could out produce you any time.

[Nicol Bolas]

If it's always like that, then that's ridiculous.

Why not? It's anti-griefing. If you kill all of your opponent's main buildings, they've lost. Even if you're doing a base-swap, all it does is let you know where your enemy's stuff is. They can't hide a Pylon somewhere and make you find it. That's fine. That was never an option for the Zerg, so I'm glad to see anti-griefing measures added to the end-game.

The fact that you can hold more than 12+ Mutalisk means if you let your opponent get too many they can start one shotting stuff, as in taking out Missile Turrets in half a second, and completely pwning probes that are mining + they can fly so it makes them that much more effective for running raids.

Um, that's great. But 12 Mutalisks is the equivalent of about 16-24 Reapers (assuming Reapers are something like 50/50 or so). 18 Mutalisks is a good 32 Reapers. It's about 12 Stalkers.

Does it take the Terrans and Protoss the equivalent of 18 Mutalisks to be able to raid effectively?

Calling down 1 MULE at a time is just like building 2 temporary SCVs at a time.

MULEs are still limited by the energy recharge rate of your OCCs. If you're calling down 1 or 20, it doesn't matter; each MULE takes X amount of energy, and will provide Y minerals. So it doesn't matter if you drop 8 of them all at once or one at a time; you'll get the same quantity of minerals.

[supersonic]

Um, that's great. But 12 Mutalisks is the equivalent of about 16-24 Reapers (assuming Reapers are something like 50/50 or so). 18 Mutalisks is a good 32 Reapers. It's about 12 Stalkers.

Does it take the Terrans and Protoss the equivalent of 18 Mutalisks to be able to raid effectively?

You have to remember that all the races are different, while you can think about cost for cost, the games just not like that. You have to think about the buildings and how fast you can get expansions up and how fast you can get resources. Zerg really only need hatchery, spawning pool, lair, spire, and a couple more hatcheries per expansion. While the Terran need to make x number of barracks and what not to keep up with the Zerg production speed. That being said Reapers have D-8 charges and Stalkers are just strong, although Colossus are much more effective for killing resource lines, 32 Reapers would be a lot, and they are harder to keep alive and defend at the same time because of their health and attack power vs Mutalisk.

Everything is very situational and each unit becomes a certain amount more powerful when they hit their "critical mass" number.

[FrozenArbiter]

Why not? It's anti-griefing. If you kill all of your opponent's main buildings, they've lost. Even if you're doing a base-swap, all it does is let you know where your enemy's stuff is. They can't hide a Pylon somewhere and make you find it. That's fine. That was never an option for the Zerg, so I'm glad to see anti-griefing measures added to the end-game.

First of all, no, just because you lose your HQs does NOT mean you've lost.
Second, it removes an element of tension in elim races.
Third, it favours zerg MASSIVELY in an elimination race as they will have significantly more HQs than the other races.
Fourth, yes, zerg can hide buildings too - extractors to specific (and in SC2, spine crawlers).

If it was a longer countdown it'd be OK for me, but 30 seconds is too short. 2 minutes is iffy :S

I am not bothered by people hiding buildings (people are gonna hide CCs anyway lol) personally, but if they have to implement it for ladder maps, I hope it's turned off for normal games (ie tournaments).

[supersonic]

First of all, no, just because you lose your HQs does NOT mean you've lost.
Second, it removes an element of tension in elim races.
Third, it favours zerg MASSIVELY in an elimination race as they will have significantly more HQs than the other races.
Fourth, yes, zerg can hide buildings too - extractors to specific (and in SC2, spine crawlers).

If it was a longer countdown it'd be OK for me, but 30 seconds is too short. 2 minutes is iffy :S

I am not bothered by people hiding buildings (people are gonna hide CCs anyway lol) personally, but if they have to implement it for ladder maps, I hope it's turned off for normal games (ie tournaments).

When does this situation ever come into play, there has been about 1 game I've seen that has base swapping and I don't think they had lost their Nexuses for even over 30 seconds. I would say I would wait for up to 1 min for things to be revealed but not more than that, because really if you have lost your main gathering structure for more then a minute you have lost in both econ and overall.

[PsiWarp]

Hmm, some questions about stats...

True or false for the below statistics of the macro mechanics (from SC2Armory):

Protoss Obelisk = 200 minerals, 70 seconds build time.
Zerg Queen = 100 minerals, 2 control, 25 seconds build time, 4x2 damage vs ground and air
Terran Orbital Command = 150 minerals, 50 seconds build time.


-Psi

[supersonic]

Hmm, some questions about stats...

True or false for the below statistics of the macro mechanics (from SC2Armory):

Protoss Obelisk = 200 minerals, 70 seconds build time.
Zerg Queen = 100 minerals, 2 control, 25 seconds build time, 4x2 damage vs ground and air
Terran Orbital Command = 150 minerals, 50 seconds build time.


-Psi

I'm not 100% on the exact build times but

Obelisk sounds about right, maybe even a little longer to build.
Queen is 150 minerals, no control, I'm thinking a little more than 25 prob more like 40-50, and that damage sounds correct.
Orbital Command I think takes about that to make.

It felt like you would build an Obelisk and come back a little later and it would be just finishing, and the Orbital Command felt a little shorter than that so that's probably around correct.

[Reaper]

Thanks man, that's very informative.

Did you try out the Thor? How is it?