3 ms·

Starcraft actually makes the fundamentals deliberately difficult, note, which is one of the reasons it is so competitive but also one of the reasons it has such

by gchpaco 15y ago

Starcraft actually makes the fundamentals deliberately difficult, note, which is one of the reasons it is so competitive but also one of the reasons it has such a steep learning curve. If you're a Zerg in SC2 you must program yourself every thirty seconds to go around to every hatch and inject larvae, every time, even in the middle of microing a battle. This is hard to do for most humans and even for professional gamers, and is one of the (many) things that drives me absolutely bats about SC2. The thing that infuriates me about that particular example is it would take thirty seconds for someone at Blizzard to make that ability autocastable. But the analogous macro capabilities (Terran mules, Protoss chronoboost) are not so easily automated, and so everybody has to have this stupid timer in their heads. I like the Company of Heroes/Dawn of War 2 model better, where you can set something on "overwatch" which means the moment you have the resources, it will start building it. Not everything in DOW2 is overwatchable but a significant amount of the niggling details like troop reinforcement is, and it can really simplify things like "I want a Chimera ASAP". Even in DOW2 it isn't always appropriate--overwatch reinforcement can bleed resources you are banking to some higher tier unit dry--but it's nice to have the option.

sliverstorm 15y ago
I personally agree, but I suspect if Blizzard allowed enough of that sort of thing the nature of the game would become much more macro-focused, and what makes the game unique and great appears to be a balance between micro and macro.
anaccountiguess 15y ago
well with the larvae example, you can have your queens in a group and then just spam-click the hatcheries on the minimap, or use a couple other techniques but still i agree that it's going to be annoying because it has to keep ticking in your head regardless. in fact the annoying "economy" micro is the reason i got bored of the game and stopped playing. while i know i could get pretty darn good at the game if i practiced it with some seriousness, doing that was just more work than i would ever put into something that is supposed to be fun

by gchpaco 15y ago

sliverstorm 15y ago

I personally agree, but I suspect if Blizzard allowed enough of that sort of thing the nature of the game would become much more macro-focused, and what makes the game unique and great appears to be a balance between micro and macro.

anaccountiguess 15y ago

well with the larvae example, you can have your queens in a group and then just spam-click the hatcheries on the minimap, or use a couple other techniques but still i agree that it's going to be annoying because it has to keep ticking in your head regardless. in fact the annoying "economy" micro is the reason i got bored of the game and stopped playing. while i know i could get pretty darn good at the game if i practiced it with some seriousness, doing that was just more work than i would ever put into something that is supposed to be fun