Too Many Minerals!?

[Aldrius]

It’s obvious.

P.S. For ‘broader’ answer see the thread name.

The thread name isn't correct, though. You can get MORE gas in SC2 than you could per expansion in SC1. Or at least get the same gas more quickly. And you do so... *drum roll* at the expense of 200 minerals (and 3 food).

[Norfindel]

Question: can Chrono Boost be casted on an Assimilator? Does it have any effect?

Actually, no: as it’s now you can build two Refineries simultaneously, thus can gain maximum gas income from one expansion faster, than if you’ll build a Refinery then upgrade it.

That's sssuming that you are going to wait to have 150 minerals to build them simultaneously. If you want to get gas ASAP, you should really build one when you have 75, then another one when you accumulate 75 again. That's probably slightly faster than waiting for the building to finish, then upgrade, but upgrade time can be tweaked, anyways.

[Aldrius]

Question: can Chrono Boost be casted on an Assimilator? Does it have any effect?

I can test this, if you want me to. But I feel PRETTY safe saying that no, chrono boost has no affect on an assimilator.

That's sssuming that you are going to wait to have 150 minerals to build them simultaneously. If you want to get gas ASAP, you should really build one when you have 75, then another one when you accumulate 75 again. That's probably slightly faster than waiting for the building to finish, then upgrade, but upgrade time can be tweaked, anyways.

Well, no, the cost of the refinery building isn't the issue. The point is having the mineral and supply capacity to spare three workers to gather from that second refinery building, and the desire for that much vespene. Otherwise you're just wasting 75 minerals (and a drone in the case of Zerg).

Generally, in my experience, you shouldn't build both buildings at once unless you're teching. It depends on the race (and build of course), but usually I get my first geyser at the same time as my spawning pool, just before I get my cybernetics core, or while I'm building my barracks. Then I get my second after I build my factory, upgrade my lair or start heading into tier 2 as Protoss.

But those are just the builds I'm testing out right now.

[Josue]

I don't like the idea of just clicking a bottom to get gas for minerals. It something everyone would do. It sounds kind of a tedious way to improve the game.

This idea is different, let's understand it:
You will be clicking it only when the Geyser is depleted, only if you want to do it and it's not just paying minerals to get gas.

You have 2 geysers in your base, each with 2500 gas. If you deplete those faster it doesn't really matter. You'll have... 5000 gas. Exactly what you would have had after your geysers depleted in SC1. The only real issue is the lack of 'depleted' gathering (which didn't give you all that much anyway) and the fact that you need to pay 200 minerals to get that extra .75x gas.

That's why this mechanic could add something: to compensate the loss of 'depleted gathering'

Depleted Gas Drilling
-Depleted Assimilator/Refinery/Extractor has a Drill ability costing X minerals
-Vespene Geyser gets Y quantity of Gas which can be extracted again
-Drill can be used Z times

[Draco]

I like the skewed ratio. It accomplishes 2 things:

Gas units can be made cooler
and
You usually have excess minerals.

The excess minerals make low tier fodder a staple to the fight; it's like DoTA creep. It lends itself to unit diversity by making tier 1 always seem appetizing.

[Krikkitone]

I think that eliminating "depeleted gathering" is actually a good idea.

If gas is too scarce in the early game, then make it come in faster (collect 5 or 7 or 23 per trip instead of 4)
If gas is too scarce in the late game, then increase the 'capacity' of the Geysers.

The ability for the player to choose between those options Would also be interesting
ie... allow Refineries to be upgraded so that they either
1. gave you gas faster (upgraded version... units take 1/2 as long so you need ~5 workers, but they are getting 2x as many trips)
2. gave you gas slower, but gave you more gas (ie units take 2x as long so you get 1/2 as many trips and only use 2 workers, but only 2 gas is removed from the Geyser per trip.. instead of the full 4 that you get... effectively meaning that you have 2x as much gas in the geyser)

[dynamiK-]

SO... we've got macro mechanics to help us mine more minerals. We've got high yield minerals. In exchange we have two vespene geysers at each site. Should we also have a high yield gas? I notice from watching streams people often end up with low gas but more cash than they know what to do with...

Say blizzard considers this... I request red or purple geysers! Red or purple gases would definitely have that high yield look. =)

It's important not to "over do" certain parts of the game, such as the idea of high yield resources. I say leave it as is. Part of the game is to struggle with low income gas.

[milo]

If minerals are already a dime a dozen, then what's the point of the high yield patches?

Now, I agree that Vespene should be more rare, but by how much? Brood War has a good ratio, but does Wings of Liberty?

[GRUNT]

"Too many Minerals!?"

The answer is and always shall be: "Not enough minerals." >=(

[Aldrius]

If minerals are already a dime a dozen, then what's the point of the high yield patches?

They're NOT... supply buildings cost minerals, ergo the more minerals you can get, the more minerals your opponent can get. Which means the more minerals you need to USE.