View Full Version : Absolute Beginners Guide & Info Thread.
Warning: Looooooooooong Post.
Learning Starcraft 2 from the very beginning.
A help/information thread for new and beginner players.
Intro: You may be in the copper league, struggling to point and click to get a few units to build, wondering why your enemy is in your base with 3 zealots before you can even manage to get a gateway built... You might be into your 3rd placement match thinking, "am I just not capable of playing this game?"... You may be playing a very easy CPU, shy and afraid of challenging an opponent to a 1v1 quick match.... You may have just been cussed out by your ally in a 2v2 match because it's "your fault that we lost!"...
Regardless of your situation. This is a potentially pivotal moment in the Starcraft franchise, maybe even in the RTS Genre. With the beta test of Starcraft 2 already underway, and the official release of the retail version sometime 'soon'. The hype is at new levels, not only from old-school pros, but from new members of the community that have recently taken interest in not only playing SC2, but in becoming actually decent at it!
After all, this is a great time for competitive gaming. In the past few years we have huge competitive titles like Street Fighter 4, Quake Live, and now Starcraft 2 emerging. Taking old school, traditional e-sports into new territory, This is the age of streams, where everyone can witness the spine-tingling action of competitive gaming live from their own homes! Where gamers from all over the world can interact with each other in new ways. When SC1 came out there was no youtube, there was no livestream, there were no 'blogs' or 'vlogs' or internet gaming media outlets. Times have changed and the general interest in e-sports (as well as gaming in general) has increased many times over.
So this may be obvious, boring, or a wall-of-text (which it is), to most intermediate and advanced players. But for you, Mr(s). First-Time-RTSer, hopefully this will be able to lead you into a direction where you will begin to understand that it isn't out of your reach to be become a decent Starcraft 2 player, and it isn't out of your reach to become a good Starcraft 2 player, or even a GREAT Starcraft 2 player, if you put in the time and work required to hone your skills! (which can't be much more time than you put into your lv.80 undead rogue... or your popsicle-stick collection... lol =P)
Want to get started? Well then you have to...
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[Absolute Beginner's Guide]
...Start of from the very beginning. I can guarantee that you can not, and will not, learn the complexities and intricacies of Starcraft 2 from ONLY reading posts, watching replays, or playing against a computer. Before these things can become of any use to you, you have to learn the basics.
1.) Pick your main race!
Learning Starcraft 2 has to start here. Give Terran, Protoss and Zerg a try. Figure out which one you like, and which race you think best fits your style. You absolutely can not learn them all at once. It takes time to get at a level where you can play 'random' as your main race. One of the most interesting aspects of Starcraft 2 is the magnitude of uniqueness of each of the three races! Find the race that you like, that you think is cool and that you feel comfortable playing! Once you have made that difficult choice you have to...
2.) Learn the units and abilities of that race!
Now, when I say this, I don't expect you to master the usage of every unit and ability. It takes time to learn to psi-storm. It takes time to learn to use siege tanks effectively. It takes time to learn the complexities of micro-ing different units (many units have different methods of micromanaging, there is no one-size fits all micro technique). So what I mean is..
Learn the basic functions, abilities and upgrades of EVERY unit that you can create. In the same way that you can't build something in real life very well without knowing exactly what every tool in your toolkit can do, and should be used to do. You have to learn the basic 'purposes' and 'functions' of all your units. You have to know that siege tanks are vulnerable to air. Or that you have to fuse two templars together to make an archon. Or that ghosts can EMP to deplete Protoss shields, and so on.
So for whatever race you pick, go in to a CPU game, make a few of every unit that your race can make. Make at least one of every building that your class can make and start to familiarize yourself with the abilities and capabilities of your race. Memorize your race in and out, so that you don't do something embarrassing like sending a group of immortals in to fight a group of mutalisks without knowing that immortals can not attack air... (hehe) It will take time, but it will drastically improve your ability to make decisions in game. From there you have to...
3.) Learn the hotkeys for your race, as well as the general game command hotkeys!
Start off with the simple (yet common and VERY important) hotkeys first...
Its crucial to be able to create unit groups (cntl+[1-9]). I commonly keep my main nexus/cc/hatch grouped under #5, for easy access at all times. Also, please learn that double pressing a unit group hotkey will center your camera around that unit or group of units. For example, if i'm fighting in my opponents base with an army bound to unit group 1, and my nexus/cc/hatch is bound to unit group 5, i can quickly move my camera between my home base and my fighting units by double-pressing 1 or 5 respectively.
Learn how to build all your buildings and units with your hotkeys. Start with the most common units first and move on to the others soon after you have them memorized. For example (using Protoss) you need to know that will get you a pylon. That [V -> C] will get you a Twilight Council. That [B -> G] will get you a Gateway. That [W] will quick select all of your warpgates, so that something like [W -> Z -> Click in the Pylon's 'Psionic Matrix'] will warp a zealot in from your warpgate!
Take time to master that! From there, it gets increasingly complex, but also somewhat more manageable. You shouldn't really bother trying to learn build orders, if you aren't able to use your hotkeys correctly and control the game proficiently. Next...
[B]
4.) Learn the ins and outs of the other races!
I won't go to in depth on this one, because its not a whole lot different from #2. Just make sure you know what the other 2 races in the game (that you aren't using as your main) are capable of doing. That may require you to open up a CPU game and build one of each unit for each race and figure out what type of things can be used against you. For example, if you don't understand/know what reapers can do, you might be very surprised when you seem them jump over the cliff into your base and clear out your mineral line before you even have time to react!! This takes a lot of time and experience. However, once you have a basic understanding of all three races and what are and are not potential occurrences in a match of SC2, you have to...
5.) Learn your match-ups (MUs) and corresponding build orders!
The way you play against a Terran, is not going to be the same as the way you play against a Zerg.
The way you play against a Zerg, is not going to be the same as the way you play against a Protoss.
The way you play against a Protoss, is not going to be the same as the way you play against a Terran.
With this in mind, you must now realize that the psychology and the strategy of Starcraft 2 starts from the loading screen! You can't make any big decisions at this point, because SCOUTING is the fundamental and essential building block of your overall strategy. However, when you see that your terran has picked Zerg, Terran, Protoss, or Random, it actually reduces the amount of possible occurrences! If you know what each race can and can not do, (which you should by this point ~.^) you will have the ability to narrow down the list of things that you need to consider when starting a game..
Once the game actually begins, most build orders start out the same for the first minute or so of the game. You build workers, you build supplies, and most importantly... you SCOUT your enemy. The timing and the frequency of scouting trips can very, but do not neglect it!!! Especially not in early and mid game. Once you have a worker in the opponent's base, you can learn to analyze exactly what is going on and what they may be planning. You will learn to recognize your opponent's build orders in time. You will check to see if they are getting early Vespene Gas (a sign that they intend to move quickly up the tech tree), or if they are preparing to mass basic units and rush your base (a sign that you may be in for some action sooner than you think!), or if something fishy is afoot (you dont see a pylon and a gateway at the Protoss players base? Chances are they are building a proxy gateway!! Craaaaap!!!)...
The early game is a very important time for deciding what to do, and how to get it done. Do not neglect to consider the possibilities of various matchups! Do not neglect to scout! And do not neglect to learn various build orders (the order in which you make structures and units) to deal with various situations.
There is not a 1-size-fits-all build order solution!!! When you realize this you are ready to step your game up to a higher level, and you'll probably be able to get some wins under your belt! Now you can move on to becoming a player that is a 100% total noob, to a intermediate player. For that, you have to...
6.) Learn how to "macro" (a.k.a.: manage your economy and overall forces)!
'Macro', is short for, 'macro-management'. Which arises as a term in contrast to 'micro' or 'micromanagement'.
Improving your micro and macro is a CONSTANT struggle and issue. The way an intermediate player becomes an advanced player, and the way an advanced player becomes a pro is by consistantly increasing their ability to macro and micro!!
So what exactly does 'macro' mean to us? It's more than just a vague piece of RTS nomenclature (much MUCH more..)!! The ability to macro isn't an easy one to define in exact terms, as many people will disagree with what is and is not considered macro. But basically, macro is the process of controlling things on a bigger scale. (Think you're base and forces as a whole, instead of each as individual units).
One of the most important (and difficult) areas of macro, as well as one of the most commonly thought of parts when discussing macro, is economic/base management. Simply put, knowing what to build, when to build it, when you have enough, and when you NEED MORE! To think about it on basic terms, resources that are unspent are of no use to you. You won't win any matches because you collected more minerals and gas than your opponent. YOU MUST SPEND!!!
One of the most common mistakes that new players make is that they misunderstand the phases of a Starcraft (1 or 2) match. New and inexperienced players often think of the beginning of a match as the building phase, the middle of a match as a teching phase, and the end of a match as the unit massing phase (which is why a lot of new players cry "foul-play" when they get rushed...). When playing with a new player, it's not uncommon to see them build only 1 or 2 gateways/barracks early in the game, and then believe that they can survive later in the game with only those two! This is a sure way to lose a match. 1-2 gateways isn't enough, 1-2 barracks isn't enough, 1 factory isn't enough, 1 robotics facility isn't enough, etc... The longer the game goes on, the more everything should scale up. More units, more buildings, more resources, etc. I will say this now: a player with 2 warpgates is not going to beat a player with 8 warpgates, if they both have the same amount of economy. You simply cannot produce a large amount of units in a short amount of time if you do not have enough buildings. That is an undeniable fact of RTS games that is crucial to stepping up your game!
If you learn anything at all from this rant is this: unspent resources do you no good at all, and that 1-2 production buildings is not going to be enough after the first few minutes of the game. You're making all the right tactical moves but you're still getting your rear-end handed to you? Then it's likely your macro is not up to scratch. Either you don't have enough workers, and therefor do not have enough resources to build with. Or you have a lot of resources and don't have enough production buildings to spend them all. Your goal when it comes to macro should be collecting as many resources as possible (there is a resource/time number listed in replays by the way), as well as keeping your stored resources as close as possible to 0 by spending them all on production buildings, units, and upgrades.
Improving your macro is a constant struggle for all players, but just try to do it better and better each and every match. At the same time you need to...
7.) Learn how to "micro" (a.k.a.: advanced unit control)!
Basically, you need to know how to get the absolute MOST out of your units that you create. If you have 5 roaches and your opponent has 5 roaches, who will win the battle? Easy, the person that micromanages their units better. This means using every advantage you can at your disposal. Such as focus firing, dancing (moving your damaged units back so they go out of range and then back in so that they can continue to do damage without dieing), using special abilities (like burrow with a roach to regen health) to the best of your ability, as well as taking advantage of the terrain (blocking units on a ramp or gaining high ground).
I would consider macro and micro to be - 'techniques' - as opposed to - 'tactics'. But that's just a bit of semantic knit-picking... The reason for this is because learning how to macro and micro correctly isn't really an option in RTS games. It's not something you choose to utilize or not. The fact is that what separates the weaker players for the amazingly powerful players is the ability to do macro and micro at an amazing level... Think about them like playing a musical instrument. You can't really play guitar without interacting with the strings. But what separates the 12 year old in the garage next door from jimi hendrix? The level of control and proficiency with the tools at hand.
Have you ever wondered what the significance of the terms upper-hand (english), gao shou (chinese), gosu (korean) and jyouzu (japanese) are? (If you're not a language geek like me you probably haven't... lol D=).
All these terms refer to a higher degree of skill. But they also all consist of the words for "HAND" and "UP", or their linguistic equivalents. What does this mean? That knowledge of the game is only half of the equation, which execution is the other half. This goes for everything, competitive games (Street Fighter, Quake, Starcraft, etc), music, art, sports, etc.
If you want to get the complete upper hand over your opponent in a game of Starcraft 2, you have no choice but to improve the capabilities of your MIND and your HANDS. It is this which all players constantly attempt to improve. The clarity of our minds, which leads us to make all the right decisions at the right times. As well as the dexterity of our hands, which allows us to gain superior control of the tools available to us. These two things combined are what allows us to surpass what limited us before, and also what limits our opponents. It comes down to knowledge and ability.
8.) Review and React!
Often, knowing what to do doesn't result in actually doing what everything right. An intermediate players knows all of the above (macro, micro, MUs, builds, units, etc.). But the thing that separates them (myself included) from the pro players, is the ability to do the right thing 100% of the time with maximum efficiency. Because of this, you should watch all of your own replays (and even other people's) to discern how you can improve. This will allow you to continue to do the things that you do well, while improving the areas in which you need to work hard to improve. The SC2 replay viewer is very very potent... Analyze your mistakes and you are likely to fix them later!
I would also highly recommend that all SC2 players that want to get better find a group of in-game friends that you can routinely play against and review matches with. Being buddies with another player can provide you with critiques and insight in to how you can improve your game specifically. This guide can not do that, because each player is different. You may be lacking in one area and strong in another area so you don't understand why you are losing matches. Peer review will catch mistakes in your game that you may not see!
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Anyone else with anything to add please feel free! I'm by no means an unstoppable pro, so take what i say with a grain of salt. Please read the replies to this thread as they will contain even more insight and information than I can single-handedly provide!
Any contributions/corrections that can be made to help new players improve will be appreciated! There are many players out there that are better than myself and probably have better insight into some of these topics. I hope that this thread can be used as a resource for those who want to become better as Starcraft 2 players, and thereby contribute to the SC2 community!!!
What this thread isn't: a "how do i counter roaches?" thread. A "immortals are IMBA" thread. A "lol ur a nub" thread. A "tldr" thread. ETC. (Be productive or don't "be" at all if you get my drift... ~.^)
Rilgon
03-18-2010, 07:19 PM
The only major thing I would contribute is that you need a willingness to learn. Don't take crushing defeats as a bad thing, use them as a tool to learn.
Every match you play, assuming you don't drop due to disconnection, is recorded and preserved for you to use. Did your opponent come out of nowhere with an inexplicable number of units? Watch the replay, figure out how he did it. Did an opponent suddenly appear in your base with units faster than you think he should have? Watch the replay, see if there was a proxy in your base. You now know where he put his proxy, and if he put it there, others are likely to as well.
Every game has a lesson to learn from it. Take something positive away from every game, even if it's small. Never stop learning.
@ Rilgon:
Absolutely. That's great advice and something I didn't really cover!
No matter how good you are, you will lose. And it's very easy to take that very hard, especially when you take the game very seriously.
Thanks for the contribution!
Hulkbot
03-18-2010, 07:21 PM
Agreed (great thread btw! even I can take something from it)
I have a friend who is also in the beta and he is mortified when he loses. Unfortunately he loses a lot and tends to learn little and struggles a lot in the Bronze bracket.
I try to point him to discussions and team liquid's replays and all sorts of stuff but he just doesn't absorb it. Even from his own losses he does not learn. He thinks all his enemies are like... MAGIC....
Being honest with yourself and marveling at a loss instead of feeling like you just got pantsed on a schoolbus can really go a long way at developing as a player... None of this other advice is any good without a will to learn.
Audio
03-18-2010, 07:22 PM
I actually read all of this, some useful stuff for new players here. Personally, the macro micro part was rather inspiring and motivational.
Neovalkyrion
03-18-2010, 07:23 PM
I think this is brilliant, and should be stickied and have a few more things added to it. Such as...
-Watch Replays (Yours or Others)
Thanners
03-18-2010, 07:24 PM
Great post.
I also agree so so much with those mentioning use of replays. The replays in SC2 are really great because you can set yourself up to see the other player, switch on player-cam, and see where their attention (screen) is as the match progresses, and mostly be able to see what they're clicking.
I'm learning a lot. Slowly, and still losing horribly, but learning. :P
Long post is long. I'll make to read this tonight when I get home from work. Thanks for this!
I'm totally the target audience for this post, so the advice was really useful. I'd echo the comments that watching replays of your matches to see what your opponent is doing is really helpful: not necessarily for getting a second-by-second breakdown of what he did, but getting a big picture view of how fast they built, what units they chose, where they expanded to and so on. I'm constantly amazed at the variety of different ways players are finding to defeat me (Massed air sqaudron! Cloaked squad of Dark Templars! Collosi with mother ship! Zealot rush!).
My general observation as a newcomer to this game is that resources are not scarce. You need to expand fast and build quickly, because any moderately competent opponent will be doing exactly that. For a complete newcomer, getting used to the pace at which economies grow is a challenge. ("I have a starport.... but my opppoent has 4...").
Thanks for the kind words guys, I kind of threw this together last night at the last moment. I was originally replying to another thread where a new player was asking for help and advice and then i just decided that it would be more effective (for me) to create a new thread with an in depth look at the learning process of SC2.
I made some changes thanks to your input:
- Added a "Review and React" section at the end.
- Put an increased emphasis on watching replays and making SC2 friends.
- Encouraged the reader to please read through the thread replies for supplementary advice and information. There is already a lot of insightful views being expressed by you guys, and I wouldn't like for the reader to skip over them!
Unfortunately, I didn't reserve much space after my original posts to expand the guide much more. And because of the character limit, there is going to be a limit to how much I can write in these few initial posts. I'm not used to this type of forum so we'll see what can be done about that.
There are some interesting supplements that i've been considering adding to the guide so far, but i think i'll leave it for now. I may make a similar and even more in depth write-up later in the year when Starcraft 2 becomes available to the mass public. I have some concepts that are not typically talked about in the RTS scene that i have gleaned from the fighting game scene and the FPS scene, that i think can be applied to the RTS genre, so i'll explore that idea on my own for now and when i figure out if/how they are relavent, I'll definitely attempt to find a way to initiate a discussion about them. It should be interesting for new and intermediate players, as well as advanced players, as these concepts might be somewhat foreign to the RTS hardcore crowd.
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For a complete newcomer, getting used to the pace at which economies grow is a challenge. ("I have a starport.... but my opppoent has 4...").
That is a crucial observation to make! So you've already taken the first step towards becoming a better player. And listen to me when I say this:
Improving macro is a constant challenge for ALL players. Newcomers and Advanced players alike!
As I said in the guide, even intermediate and advanced players will lose by being out macro'd and out micro'd by their opponents. You may get to a point where you have 4 starports, but your opponent may have 4 starports and enough expos to churn out units constantly!
So if improving macro feels like a struggle to you know, don't worry, because that is normal! Macro'ing skillfully is a bit of a science but it is also an art (if you know what i mean..). Even good players with good macro will get overwhelmed by some of the international pro players (not just in korea, there are good SC players all over the world!).
So just remember that the battle for the leveling-up of your macro and micro 'chops' is an ongoing one. You're working on it. I'm working on it. Everyone on this forum is working on it. Everyone on battlenet is working on it!
Keep up the good work and thanks for reading!
Rilgon
03-18-2010, 07:28 PM
Since I was the first reply, I'd be glad to edit the post to add more to the guide. Just make a post with what you want to include and I'll C+P it into my first post.
Nethaera
03-18-2010, 07:29 PM
Nice post.
Mooks
03-18-2010, 07:30 PM
Nice post.
Hey Neth just stopping by to see how the kids are doing.
???? what
Good read, OP.
Nethaera
03-18-2010, 07:31 PM
Hey Neth just stopping by to see how the kids are doing.
???? what
Good read, OP.
Of course! Where else do you get to mix heavy artillery and alien warfare?
Tiamazzo
03-18-2010, 07:33 PM
Of course! Where else do you get to mix heavy artillery and alien warfare?
Could think of a couple places, but none as well done as SC2, imo.
Xenjin
03-18-2010, 07:34 PM
Just a friendly bump for this well thought out thread.
/bump
Divine
03-18-2010, 07:35 PM
i vote for a sticky =D
Rilgon
03-18-2010, 07:36 PM
i vote for a sticky =DSame. Already made a sticky request.
Orion
03-18-2010, 07:37 PM
Something I would like to see added is the topic of expanding, which can be vital to winning a match as well.
If you stay bunkered in your base the whole time, you might just find yourself surrounded by enemy bases on all sides. Knowing when to expand your base and where can turn the tides of battle.
I am not very good at writing guides, so if you or someone else want to further expand (no PUN intended lol) on this topic it would be great.
Excrement
03-18-2010, 07:38 PM
Good post. You could add a whole section to the purpose and advantages of scouting, and how important that is, or just emphasize it in there somewhere. Also, maybe add a section of "Don't Become a an Ass when you start wining." or the Don't blame your partner in random teams once you become better, IE; remember where you came from.
It will totally discourage new players, losing is bad enough when you begin because you most likely will have that feeling of I just got stomped and this game is hopeless.
Plus I also don't want to see the epeen that is in WoW spill over into this game and community, although I fear some of it has.
Thanners
03-18-2010, 07:39 PM
You know, I just thought of something else to do as a beginner: Learn the maps. I just went back to play some more placement matches, and after I got the loading screen, I suddenly realised I'd never even looked at the map I was about to play on before.
It was a fairly simple map, and (having learned the importance of scouting), I sent a probe to do a loop around the map so got the gist of it quickly, but I'm sure that being familiar with a map right from the start will do a lot psychologically to make you feel a bit more comfortable, already being aware of how many entrances there are to your base, where he might hide, and so on.
Endureth
03-18-2010, 07:40 PM
Nice post.
Just not sticky-worthy?
You know, I just thought of something else to do as a beginner: Learn the maps. I just went back to play some more placement matches, and after I got the loading screen, I suddenly realised I'd never even looked at the map I was about to play on before...
Yeah that's another good idea, i'll try to write up a bit more on both scouting and learning the maps when I get a chance.
Other concepts i want to explain are "punishing" and "reading". For example, punishing you opponents mistakes, and being able to read/predict what they are thinking. Both of these concepts can be very closely tied to scouting so maybe i'll write up a new supplementary piece on them.
Thanks again for the feedback guys!
This is good information. I haven't been the model tester for this game, because I'm a complete newbie to this game and it's frustrating to try to learn everything in a short amount of time. So far, I've only played one game and the task of trying to get caught up to everyone else is too daunting. Thanks for the writeup, and I also vote for this to be a sticky.
-EDarkness
Pipkin
03-18-2010, 07:43 PM
@ OP: -great- write-up!
Like the guy above me, I'm...so not the model tester for this. I've never even played Starcraft before (unless what i did all of 20 minutes ago counts). Wish I'd read the OP's post -beforehand- however. :)
Please - Sticky!
Good post. One thing that I had trouble with years ago in SC1 was the workers. At the beginning of the game for the first several minutes you need to create workers non-stop. If you don't, because you forgot, spent too many minerals, or don't have enough supply, you are doing something wrong and need to review and adjust your build order.
Of course, replays are a great resource. Play 1v1 and when you get crushed by someone your own race, copy them!
Kraal
03-18-2010, 07:45 PM
Great info. Any chance of a short guide on dancing? I understand the concept, but I've always had trouble with the execution (ordering the units back in time, getting to order all the wounded ones to move back, not getting units blocked on their own teammates, etc).
Also, I'd love to see an explanation of the various ways of moving, as many posts I've seen seem to imply there's a wrong and a right way of ordering your units to move and/or attack. Personally I've always just r-clicked the ground or an enemy unless I needed them to patrol, hold position, hold fire, etc.
After playing a few more games last night, I have an observation and a tip:
The observation is that the single most important resource is your attention. The less time and attention you spend on one task, the more time and attention you can spend on another task, and at any given moment there may be dozens of things you could be doing.
Related to that is a tip: As a newbie, I felt that I had to personally direct the pathing of units (on scouting missions for instance): Click the unit to move, click the spot to go, then click another spot, then another spot, then another spot.
Good players don't do that.
If the destination is off-screen, you can right-click where you want them to go on the minimap. The units will work out their own path to get there. This is crucial for quickly executing scouting trips.
This is also works for setting "rally points". You can pick a location where new units from a building spawn. Simply select the building, then right-click somewhere on screen, or on the minimap. Once the unit spawns from the building, they will immediately start heading for the rally point.
Raxus
03-18-2010, 07:47 PM
Awesome post. As an old school star craft player that hasn't played the game for well over 8 years it can be really frustrating to get molly whopped on a regular basis.
Only thing I can add is try not to get frustrated when learning. Walk away and come back later. Really the point of games is to have fun. Don't let yourself get angered to the point of not wanting to play again.
Most people in beta and retail will help you out if you ask. You'd be surprised how many really cool people are around. Don't be shy.
Tremechus
03-18-2010, 07:48 PM
Actually, it's quite comforting to know that I'm not the only one being trounced regularly :)
It gives me hope knowing I'm not alone.
Raxus
03-18-2010, 07:49 PM
Actually, it's quite comforting to know that I'm not the only one being trounced regularly :)
It gives me hope knowing I'm not alone.
Absolutely not heh. I've been molly whopped a good 75% of my games. But I'm learning.
Skosiris
03-18-2010, 07:50 PM
Thanks for posting this :)
Ukiah
03-18-2010, 07:51 PM
thanks for posting this, I was getting real frustrated, until I read this, and found where I was going wrong.
thanks for posting this, I was getting real frustrated, until I read this, and found where I was going wrong.
Good! I'm glad that it helped you!
You know, I'm not the greatest player in the world. I'm intermediate for sure, but still working no this stuff a lot. Basically the reasoning and thought behind why I wrote this is that I feel like there is tons of excellent information online about starcraft and RTS strategy in general, but a lot of it assumes you know the basics.
With this article, I tried to be very step-by-step and formulaic, starting from the absolute beginning! This game has a very steep learning curve, and getting from the beginner's stage to the intermediate stage can be really very tough. Its easy to get discouraged when you plateau, and it happens to everyone sometimes. But as a beginner, a really solid understanding of the basics will help you get to the next level.
Of course, keep practicing! Remember to scout, and to build a lot of production steuctures (zerg excluded) and to keep your unused resources as low as possible (they can really build up in SC2 faaaast).
Good Luck! I'll try to update again soon, to busy practicing myself! lol
Awesome post. As an old school star craft player that hasn't played the game for well over 8 years it can be really frustrating to get molly whopped on a regular basis.
Only thing I can add is try not to get frustrated when learning. Walk away and come back later. Really the point of games is to have fun. Don't let yourself get angered to the point of not wanting to play again.
Most people in beta and retail will help you out if you ask. You'd be surprised how many really cool people are around. Don't be shy.
Yeah. Good point. It's quite easy to get pissed off when you lose in any competitive game. Starcraft matches can be intense and its 20minutes of pure focus and mental effort. When you lose you just feel like $h!t. lol
It can definitely be a challenge to keep from becoming demoralized. Sometimes its better just to give it an hour and try again later. Games are meant to be fun.
Its a good thing to find a in game friend or training partner around your level that you can try to improve at the same time.
Also /bumped for any potential new players in the current invite wave!
CrankY
03-18-2010, 07:54 PM
As a generally terrible Starcraft player in the past (and RTS games in general... the computer in WC3 can whip me on easy sometimes), this guide definitely has a lot of relevant information.
I can get my first base going all right, but then I'm never sure when to expand and when to try to amass forces. I also often forget about the supply limit and realize that I'm being held back by supply depots when I'm desperately trying to build up my army!
So, perhaps the best advice to myself and everyone else, and it has already been said, is to keep playing and stay positive. Realize that every loss is a chance to learn from your mistakes and see a different way of playing the game. Replays are tremendously interesting, as they let you see everything that was just going on. If you just lost, you probably feel frustrated and confused, and the replay will at least take care of the confusion.
Thanks OP!
Baldey
03-18-2010, 07:55 PM
Another thing to add:
ALWAYS play at the fastest speed no mater how nub you are. If it seems intimidating at first, you'll get used to it MUCH quicker if you just stick to it.
That is if u want to get good ofcorse... Less time spent on trivial things like getting used to speed is more time spent learning how to micro and macro. If u want to keep playing casually, enjoy any speed u want... But by the time u become good, everyone you started with but the casuals will be leagues above you.
Pillage
03-18-2010, 07:56 PM
Very good guide:)
I can get my first base going all right, but then I'm never sure when to expand and when to try to amass forces. I also often forget about the supply limit and realize that I'm being held back by supply depots when I'm desperately trying to build up my army!
Yeah, when to build extra supply can be very hard. Mistiming a pylon/depot/overlord can really screw you over. It takes a bit of experience to know when you need to build them and i think new players will really benefit from paying attention to when they need extra supplies. That way if you time it wrong in one match, you'll be able to anticipate that mistake and prevent it from happening again in the next match. Good advice, thanks for the contribution!
ALWAYS play at the fastest speed no mater how nub you are. If it seems intimidating at first, you'll get used to it MUCH quicker if you just stick to it.
That is if u want to get good ofcorse... Less time spent on trivial things like getting used to speed is more time spent learning how to micro and macro. If u want to keep playing casually, enjoy any speed u want... But by the time u become good, everyone you started with but the casuals will be leagues above you.
Yeah, this is also another important piece of advice that I neglected to address... To be honest, slower game speeds aren't really viable in real matches. Everyone online plays fastest. Playing in a slower mode might be more relaxing for a new player, but you're not going to learn the sort of "rhythm" of the game. Plus, i'd argue that the fastest more is the most fun and playing on some of the slower modes is like watching water boil. haha...
Cheese
03-18-2010, 07:58 PM
Sticky this, its helped me alot just by reading tidbits from each post.
Tehschoolbus
03-18-2010, 07:59 PM
I'd just like everyone to know that everyone has their bad games. I'm sure lower level players have a lot more of them than the high level gold/platinum players, but we all have our bad games. So if you're feeling bad because you've lost a few games, then just know that other people have lost too! I've lost because I tried to fast expand against a zerg who then just rushed me with lings and GG'd me in 3 minutes. I've also lost the game for a teammate because I was busy playing around with ghosts trying to james-bond ninja-nuke some people (well... if james bond had nukes).
Most important things I'd like to teach you (if anyone reads this):
1. Keep your minerals and gas as close to 0 as possible. This means CONSTANTLY BUILD STUFF. You will have to plan ahead of time what you need to build. This could be a reaction: to build marauders to fight an enemy's roaches, or a goal: to tech to immortals and colossus. Either way, while you play you're going to want to be spending all the minerals and gas you can. If you have excess, that means you've effectively wasted time! You opponent might be spending their income and thus have a way larger force than you!
2. Build 30 workers per base, 3 for each mineral field you are mining and 3 for each gas (these are the optimal numbers). Expand often. You want to expand when you can, so that your income is greater than your opponent's. This will be the most difficult thing to time because you will have to learn how "safe" this is based on your opponent's nature (you have to learn to read people through their actions) and the amount of forces you have that can defend against your enemy's. You should assume that any base you will establish is as likely as your main (if not more likely) to get attacked. I personally spend all my free time harassing people's expansions, delighted to find that they have no defenses and basically end up being more of a waste of resources than a benefit for their owner!
3. Harass and deny constantly. If you feel like there is a period of time (one or two minutes) in which you have not encountered your enemy in battle, its likely things are growing exponentially worse for one of you. Either your enemy is a worse player than you and is simply turtling while you expand all over the map and build a giant unstoppable army, or the other way around. You shouldn't allow this to happen! If you are at an economic disadvantage, invest in some harassment tools. For terran, you can use ravens and banshees or even medivacs filled with reapers or marauders. For zerg, use mutalisks and zerglings. For protoss, use warp technology to warp in units behind enemy lines through a warp prism, or just use the warp prism to drop in some dark templar or zealots.
4. Learn to use all of each races units properly. By learning each race (as opposed to focusing only on one) you will learn how to play the Starcraft 2 RTS in general. This is a good thing. Even if you aren't especially great with one single race, if you are decent with all 3 then you will be able to learn things that opponents don't realize. Tech or rush strats are to be used only under certain conditions, and those conditions might change during battle so you'll have to be prepared for anything. Once you've learned a couple dozen strats, all the counters to all the units, how long these units take to muster, how fast they die, everything else about the game, you'll be one step closer to #1 :)
5. Train your APM. APM actually stands for Actions Per Minute. What I suggest is that you go into a custom game against an AI and try playing as fast as possible. Don't stop to smell the roses at any point... got nothing to really "do" ? Well, give your Command Center a hotkey by pressing CTRL+0 and then give some other important unit a hotkey, say... 9. Now double-hit 0 and then double hit 9. Yay you're one step closer to learning what it is to micro! What you just accomplished is you've essentially hotkeyed two units of interest. Every time you have units go to battle, start building something important, or have buildings that are important, you're going to want to hotkey these things so that you can constantly cycle through everything important going on. Even when you're in the midst of battle, you can press "9" and then hit "A" to select your barracks and build a marine. Remember, you have to make sure you're constantly spending all your minerals and gas!
6. Scout. First step towards scouting is sending a worker unit or some cheap combat unit out into the world to see what the enemy is building. If you can do this early, before anyone has troops, then you might be able to see some important things. Your guy will likely die at some point though unless you're pretty good at keeping track of what he's doing (don't forget the rest of your tasks though!). Next, get people on all the xel naga watchtowers in the map. Even people in silver and gold league don't do this... they're probably only in these leagues
Tehschoolbus
03-18-2010, 08:00 PM
(continued...)
because they've read up some strats on the interwebz and probably are soulless zombies. You want to be even better than these people! Getting control of the watch towers allows you to do just that... watch! You can see where your enemy is moving and react faster to their actions! Lastly, get some way to see into their base later in the game... observers, scanner sweep, maybe even an overlord with speed upgrade? You should see what your opponent is building.
7. Build appropriately. Okay, so you scouted out your opponent... now what do you do? You know they've built a few dozen roaches, and now you're kind of scared because you heard on the interwebz that roaches are OMG OP. Calm down. If you don't know something off-hand, just press F12 and click on the UNITS tab and then select ZERG and click on ROACH. At the bottom-right of the window there will be the counter. "Oh, its marauders!" you say. Well, GG to your opponent! Now that you know a large portion of their army is roaches, all you need to do is build a large portion of marauders and you'll win! Now just do this for every other situation that arises... yeah... its hard! But you'll quickly learn counters and what works best!
8. Take advantage of the landscape. For example, terran could amass a large number of seige tanks and drop them behind some trees. Then you can have a marine sit out a little bit in front of the tanks for some vision. Your enemy will only see the marine (because trees block vision) so when they try to go and kill this "scout" you'll waste them with your tanks! There's all sorts of situations like this... In Kulas Ravine, you can put tanks on the upper ground near your enemy's main base or natural expansion area and they'll be really sad when they find out they can't fire back. That's right - in starcraft 1 you could shoot anything that shoots you (that wasnt cloaked) but now although you might be able to see the siege tank, if you dont have complete vision in that area then you can't fire back! On a different note, command centers can lift-off, so you can easily build them in your main base where they are safe, and then transport them behind some rocks or onto an island. Yay! Now your enemy won't even know that you have a base there!
That's all for now. Hope this helps! Good Gaming! And if you want to play some games sometime and talk about what you need to do/what you're doing well, just add me in game. My name's TehSchoolBus.thefirst.
Hulkbot
03-18-2010, 08:01 PM
I'd just like everyone to know that everyone has their bad games. I'm sure lower level players have a lot more of them than the high level gold/platinum players, but we all have our bad games. So if you're feeling bad because you've lost a few games, then just know that other people have lost too! I've lost because I tried to fast expand against a zerg who then just rushed me with lings and GG'd me in 3 minutes. I've also lost the game for a teammate because I was busy playing around with ghosts trying to james-bond ninja-nuke some people (well... if james bond had nukes).
Most important things I'd like to teach you (if anyone reads this):............................................ ....................
Excellent info. I hadn't thought about how to improve APM aside from doing the same normal !!!! faster. Great help.
Galadrium
03-18-2010, 08:02 PM
This is an excellent thread.
Played my first three games and won them all pretty easily. I think a lot of other people are just figuring out the game as much as I am. So far I've watched all my replays and have learned a ton about how I won, and why my opponent lost. Most of my games are lasting in the 15-20 min range, which is fine. It seems that the few times I've won it was because I kept my tech simple and my opponent bet the farm on huge tech advantages that never materialized. So far I'm not having a problem with early "rushes." Build some light base defenses and strike first, that's usually how you win games like this.
Megabytten
03-18-2010, 08:03 PM
I've always played SC with my friends (and beaten them, albeit 90% of the time via Dark Templar rush) but never competitively and I'm startin' to feel a bit lost by a lot of acronyms and the like for various strategies/units. I know the basics like rush, micro, macro, etc but it would be nice to have someone translate a few of these things.
Also, played 5 games, lost one won 4 by simply rushing Stalkers into a terran base and demolishing them before they could get marauders up. Stalkers are my new Dark Templar :D
The 5th was lost simply because my initial rush was defeated then I was left with a quite decimated force and my buddy hadn't built anything but a ton of roaches.
Dirkydu
03-18-2010, 08:04 PM
Figured I'd toss a piece of advice regarding something I've seen several new Terran players doing.
Sensor Towers work both ways. You can see their units, but they can also see where your buildings are by it's placement (it's sensory radius shows up on EVERYONE'S minimap). Building a Sensor Tower at an expansion just broadcasts to the world what you're doing and where you're doing it at.
Minos
03-18-2010, 08:05 PM
don't do something embarrassing like sending a group of immortals in to fight a group of mutalisks without knowing that immortals can not attack air... (hehe)
I did this a few games back... lol
I had 3 voidrays floating over to my base and massed immortals, READY for the impending attack, till i hovered over their attack and it said "ground only"...
3 voidrays decimated my base and all my zealots & stalkers
epic fail...
Dirkydu
03-18-2010, 08:06 PM
I did this a few games back... lol
I had 3 voidrays floating over to my base and massed immortals, READY for the impending attack, till i hovered over their attack and it said "ground only"...
3 voidrays decimated my base and all my zealots & stalkers
epic fail...
My first game I did the exact same thing. "Immortals are the new Dragoon, right? Right?" oops.
Megabytten
03-18-2010, 08:07 PM
This thread needs to go up.
Also waiting for a translation post.
What the hell does MMM or w/e mean? Medics/Marines/Marauders is my closest guess...
Xipher
03-18-2010, 08:08 PM
This thread needs to go up.
Also waiting for a translation post.
What the hell does MMM or w/e mean? Medics/Marines/Marauders is my closest guess...
From what I've read
M&M = Marines & Marauders
M&M&M = Marines & Marauders & Medivac dropship
Nikolai
06-09-2010, 10:36 PM
From what I've learned just try not to get caught up in the base vs. base fights, map control will let you outmacro an opponent.
The map is a big place, fight for it. You'd be surprised how unconfrontational opponents can be when they see defensive structures.
I always expand quickly, having the mineral fields farthest from my main the most saturated. Build a bunker about 10 seconds away from the expo, think of what you can do with that 10 seconds. You can either move any forces close enough to skirmish for your expo or worst case scenario you can pull back all the workers. The rest is simple economics. If you take the high yield and have it saturated long enough to take more than 400 minerals from it, it was a worthy investment. If you have full saturation you can mine it out in a few minutes while your opponent is still teching up. As you mine out the further away expansions, move your workers closer to your base and near the end game be mining your main, as I always leave about half.
Thats because at this point everyone is teched up enough that there will be some kind of air unit which can quickly move and harass your economy so your main will be the safest, its best to turtle at the end when you have enough money to sustain your army. It's nice to be maxed with 12k/5k in the bank, because you know it'll just end up a war of attrition. Also, if you mined out your high yield early on and are teched up enough to prevent him from taking his you'll be pretty much guaranteed the win by macro.
sc2scoorge
02-20-2011, 10:48 PM
not too bad, can be a bit much for an Absolute beginner though :D.
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