BLUE — Benzenn talks about macro and automation/autocast.

[ArcherofAiur]

Wow how did i miss this!

Our philosophy is to automate as little as possible.

Thoughts anyone?

[DemolitionSquid]

Thoughts anyone?

Then maybe they should design stuff that shouldn't be automated.

[Krikkitone]

Then maybe they should design stuff that shouldn't be automated.

Exactly, right now Spawn Larva Should be automated, like Repair or automine.

Change the stats just slightly to break the tight linkage between Spawn Larva and Hatchery number and it becomes something to make Valid decisions on. (When do I cast Spawn Larva, Where do I cast Spawn Larva)

50 energy, 5 Larva, 5 seconds.

[protoswarrior]

I think that you guys are misconstruing the argument made by the blues.

Regarding SL and Transfusion, he mentioned that

t's rare, but we've seen games won and lost over a single Transfusion being used (or not used)t's rare, but we've seen games won and lost over a single Transfusion being used (or not used)

He really means that it is just a small illustration of how decision making in a critical situation can be an auto-win or auto-lose. The mechanics are structured that way for the most part. Just because people don't use it that way often, does not make the mechanic obsolete in itself.

I'm thinking Blizz is keeping its reserve vis-à-vis the macro mechanics because they want to see how it will evolve or how much more critical they will become as the game ages (Beta phase I mean). The CB and MULE calldown mechanics are very tailored for each Protoss and Terran player in the sense that:

A Protoss can save his CB and proxy-gate - here CB is much better used on the GWs rather than the nexus. Other Protosses would rather use CB on their tech buildings or higher-tech production facilities, while still others would just use CB to macro probes and pump units out of Warp-gates and their Robotics and produce timing-pushes.

For Terrans, I cannot really comment knowledgeably without being a hypocrite; there are so many uses for Orb Command calldowns that Terrans have not found use for ... yet.

I'll venture on one example, but don't be surprised if it is a shitty idea... Using MULES is of course very advantageous and sometimes essential to surpass or catch up in econ vs your opponent. The thing is, I think that Terrans can use the calldowns in a more "balanced" way where MULES are cast for early macro buildup intensely, then stop MULE calldowns and instead just power dual-tech units of tier 2 to push out while defending vs harass, and then just use calldown Extra supply to save mins to pump more units.

I am no Terran player, so there are prolly a ton of optimizations this idea could take...

As for Zerg, I have started seeing Transfusion being used more and more; and I've seen multi-queen zerg builds that are just meant to bolster defense while Zerg rush techs to a very mobile attack (nydus/hydra, or nydus roach with some mutas, or pure nydus/ling, or nydus banelings).

I have also seen creep tumour builds with zergs that are super-aggressive on 1 base or 2 base Lair. So SL while still essential to spawn that army earlier on; it finds a balancing moment in mid-game where the SL is no longer as crucial and the energy can be used for healing defensive structures or for spawning creep all over the map. SL is more of an early-midgame transition tool till Zerg gets 3+ hatches, then he can just use SL on 2 hatches while the 3rd queen spawns creep.

Again, Im'm not zergy at all, but there are a lot of things I believe we need to think about when talking about the mechanics as of today. Just going "yeah, some of these mechanics require autocast cuz they're so repetitive, etc" is very prejudiced in that this is only really seen at lower skill levels. AT Gold and Plat levels, I have found a lot more usage out of the mechanics from players than at lower skill tiers. I'm talking replays and live matches as well as YouTube.

I'll copy paste this over to the bnet forum once it is up, as I think that a lot of people are getting the wrong kind of vibe out of the Blizz responses. In my opinion, I feel that all 3 mechanics are fairly balanced and that it is more a matter of skill than anything that determines how well you use these mechanics. They may be APM sinks, but they're no longer as pointless as we used to think.

[protoswarrior]

UPDATE: Just wanted to update you guys on Transfusion - somehow supporting the alternate use of Queen energy, this guy in the strategy section has found a way to harness roach and queens together.

Check it out

http://sclegacy.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3564

[ArcherofAiur]

UPDATE: Just wanted to update you guys on Transfusion - somehow supporting the alternate use of Queen energy, this guy in the strategy section has found a way to harness roach and queens together.

Check it out

http://sclegacy.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3564

Keep one Queen spraying the Hatchery for extra Larvae, and from there

.......

[DemolitionSquid]

So much fail. This must be how Vader felt adrift in space after the Death Star blew up.

[GnaReffotsirk]

I've actually asked a friend to try this build:

14 hatch (nat)
15 pool
double queen with 2 crawlers.

The queens would make the crawlers almost unbreakable until colossi arrives, which at that point, there's a ton of lings around. It's a shorty one minute + thing that gives the zerg awesome economy for a midgame harass and map control.

So, with this, yes, I don't see much, not yet, but it is possible to use the queen aside from spawn larva.