Random Unit Attack Delay

[Peanutbutter]

You must be either full of yourself or something else.

It seems, that here on SCL, we can't have a casual debate, without someone getting hostile. Chill man. This is just my opinion.

You've never won because you got lucky?

You've NEVER accidentally found a hidden expo or scanned his base RIGHT after his spire or DT was finished. I've gotten so many advantages because of luck it isn't funny.

On a professional level people win because of luck ALL the time. Like that time when boxor saw the hidden gold expo of naniwa or whoever he was playing. There was HUGE anticipation whether or not he was close enough to see it and *LUCKILY* he was.

Starcraft isn't close to chess where both opponents know what's going on. It's more of a sport where human psychology and a bit of luck get put into play.

That's why a lot of SC2 players love poker, poker is a more analogue version of starcraft.

Alright. When player 1 decides to sneak an expansion, of course he puts himself in a situation where luck plays a big part. However, in such situations, I'd say game sense is the more important factor. Especially on a professional level, just looking at your opponents army can give you enough information, to at least be suspicious of a hidden expo.


As the game develops, luck will begin to have a much more minor role, as it does right now in BW. Which is exactly what this game needs imo.

Then you watch incredibly boring sports.

Sports always has the luck factor, whether it was lucky shot, a lucky hit or a lucky pass. There is always luck in a sport. The randomness is small enough to be neglected but large enough to make things interesting without biasing games or completely throwing any sense of gameplay out the window.

Starcraft is really the only " sport " i watch. And even though I don't watch much, I can't really think of any games where luck was the deciding factor.

[Todie]

As players learn more about the game, they typically adopt increasingly safe approaches, witch reduces the volatility of the game and the luck involved. There will always be reasons to act irrationally though, in calculated ways, to throw the opponent off and become less predictable. this is especially true when there is much money/prestige on the line. But i think even these irrational plays to an increasing extent becomes part of the calculations made on both sides and what may have been a blatant all in win or lose dice-roll eight months ago is now a refined build of early aggression that has one or several ways to transition after provoking a certain response and/or causing enough damage...

chance does play a role, but its rarely decisive, and when it is decisive it rarely actually had to be; the one losing to an unlucky stroke could have generally taken a less risky approach as to open the door to overcoming any disadvantage with a feat of excellently executed gameplay; a feat of strength if you will. This combination of confidence, decision-making and tallent in execution is what sets the tip top players aside from the rest, and its what will keep making Starcraft greater.

[DesertRose]

I noticed no one actually answered the question, so...

Each unit has a random attack delay, for most units it ranges from -0.0625 to 0.125 seconds; afaik there are three exceptions: The BC (-0.0625 to 0.1875), the Reaper's building attack (0.1 to 0.5) and the PDD (0).
Note that these random delays are NOT accumulative!
E.g. a Siege Tank in Siege Mode fires every 3 seconds but each shot may be premature up to 0.0625 or delayed up to 0.125 seconds; however because it is not accumulative this means when it fires 100th times the hundredth shot will be at max delayed by 0.125 (or premature by 0.0625) seconds.

Btw: The random delay is also the reason why units with an instant hit like Marines, Siege Tanks and most melee units virtually never overkill; the chances that two units fire at the exact same time is almost as little as 0.05%.

[RamiZ]

The random delay is also the reason why units with an instant hit like Marines, Siege Tanks and most melee units virtually never overkill; the chances that two units fire at the exact same time is almost as little as 0.05%.

Actually Siege Tanks in SC BW have overkill, and that is one of the craziest buffs for Siege Tanks in SC2, even though they are weaker overall when we look at the stats and cost. I wouldn't mind for old Siege Tank to be back if it had overkill like it did in SC BW, meaning that you can counter them with mass lings, or with drops, because they would actually kill themselves.

[Quirel]

I noticed no one actually answered the question, so...

Each unit has a random attack delay, for most units it ranges from -0.0625 to 0.125 seconds; afaik there are three exceptions: The BC (-0.0625 to 0.1875), the Reaper's building attack (0.1 to 0.5) and the PDD (0).
Note that these random delays are NOT accumulative!
E.g. a Siege Tank in Siege Mode fires every 3 seconds but each shot may be premature up to 0.0625 or delayed up to 0.125 seconds; however because it is not accumulative this means when it fires 100th times the hundredth shot will be at max delayed by 0.125 (or premature by 0.0625) seconds.

Btw: The random delay is also the reason why units with an instant hit like Marines, Siege Tanks and most melee units virtually never overkill; the chances that two units fire at the exact same time is almost as little as 0.05%.

Huh. So, they don't have the attack independent from the animation and then only randomize the animation, so they can eliminate overkill?

[Cotcan]

The random unit attack delay is barely anything I won't affect much of the game. It does allow things to be organic, so you don't have one sound at one time, but rather several at the same time. This makes marines attacking sound much cooler and more realistic. In the real world what army shoots their weapons at the EXACTLY the same time (even down to the exact mil second).

Sun light has a 8 and 1/2 minute delay before it reaches Earth, and yet no one really complains about that. When you play a game there's always a delay and possible loss of some data when you send your data to the server. The server then sends it to the rest of the players. That causes two delays, and with a fast enough connection speed no one cares that there is a slight delay.