How do I beat Insane AI in 5 minutes?

Question

Here I asked how to beat AI in 5 minutes on medium level.

I played as Terran. The key was to start barracks building close to opponent base (and use small map). I was successful on Medium, then on Hard...but on Very Hard my best time with Terrans was 5m2s... but usually it takes 5m30s, 6m15s... I couldn't find the quicker way... So I switched to Protoss...

Finally, I've beaten the A.I. in 4m40s, and now I'm itching to beat the A.I. on Insane level. I did that with a lot of effort on Very Hard, but I'm afraid that my strategy won't work for Insane.

I will probably try to cannon rush, but I'm not sure if it will help.

Please advise: what race, what strategies?

I haven't tried it myself yet, and I don't see any good strategy.

On Very Hard with Protoss against Terran I played in such way:

In the very beginning build new Probe - it will go to build a Pylon close to enemies base; build Pylon, Gateway, Gateway, Gateway - 3 gateways. Why? In order to get enough zealots quicker. After building 3rd gateway my probe is going to disturb their SCVs. It is not actually too successful, but it is boring to sit and wait for 1st zealot. When 1st gateway is completed you should have enough money for 1st zealot. it should go to opponent base and run close to Barrack/SCVs. While there are no marines - kill SCVs (don't get them to surround you. when marine appears - kill him with zealot. Keep producing zealots, when you reach supply limit - send your probes to die - you will get 1 more zealot. If you have money you can build 1 more pylon and train more zealots, but 6 was enough for me (2Pylons=>18 food - 6 probes=12/2 = 6 zealots).

I found this tactic almost from 10 attempts, and final time was 4m40s.

I did that on... the 1st map in the list (please let me know what it's named, I don't remember that).

I don't think that will work on Insane. Probably I need to build 2 gateways and get 3 probes with myself to push AI...?

P.S. BTW, such practices help to improve your micro: handling those zealots/probes against SCVs/marines :)

Asked by Budda

Answer

I've beat Terran with Protoss using photon rush.

1. Build probes constantly, 1st build probe will go to opponent, all others - go to minerals; 10-12 actually should be enough.
2. Build the 1st pylon outside of the opponent's start location - if you build it in the opponent base (after the choke) he will attack the pylon with large amount of SCVs. The Pylon should be built as close to the opponent base as possible.
3. Build 1 forge.
4. Build 2 cannons close to the opponent base - they will shoot up the ramp soon.
5. When these cannons are almost complete, send a probe to the opponent's base and build 1 cannon (you 1st pylon should give enough space for 1-2 cannons).
6. Opponent will try to attack your building cannon, but your first 2 cannons should be able to protect them. Keep you probe from being killed by SCVs/marines.
7. Build new pylon close to new cannon, once the new pylon is done, build 1-2 additional cannons not to far away from the 3rd cannon; it should be able to protect the new building. The new cannons should also be able to attack the command center.

After the last cannons been build they will start shooting the command center. The AI will give up quickly.

I did the above and finished sometime around 4:30.

Answered by Budda

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Worker or set troops to mine first?

Question

Which is better in the start of a Starcraft II match? Build a worker and then split or vice versa; split workers then build worker

If they each have their own benefits please list them!

Asked by Nick122

Answer

Really? it doesn't really matter.

However, if you think about it, having six workers returning with minerals half seconds faster isn't as good in the long run as having a worker created half seconds earlier - as that delays all future workers by those precious half seconds.

However, if you need that pylon down or that supply depot out a half second faster, make sure to follow this precise order:

• Send your workers to work
• Create your next worker
• Split your workers as they are reaching their mining nodes.

Of course, screwing up any other action by a half second will undo all this precision.

Answered by Resorath

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How to micro infestors most effectively

Question

I've been trying to get better with infestor usage. If I have just a couple of infestors, I seem to be able to use them OK against marine balls with a double-fungal. When I start getting 5+ infestors and trying to use them with zergling/roach to take on protoss balls/terran mech thor/hellion/tank compositions I am running into problems.

I normally have my lings/roaches on 1/2 and infestors on 3. I try to engage with lings/roaches and then tell the infestors to fungal, but with the delay from individual infestors moving into range and casting, the fungal doesn't always land on the targeted units.

Another problem is I frequently in the heat of battle end up mis-selecting and instead of my 3-f-click-f-click-f-click casting three fungals, I select some other unit by mistake and then my infestors proceed to mill around and die.

Before the neural parasite range nerf, I found it easy and effective vs void rays, tanks, colossuses etc. With the new short range I cannot seem to find a use for it. Any advice?

Finally with infested terrans it can be hard to spawn large numbers of eggs quickly, resulting in infestors being killed with high energy. I tired right clicking then shift+t queuing up large numbers, but then the infestors all cluster in a huddle trying to move into the "firing" position one at a time resulting in a slow deployment.

Thanks!

Asked by Nick

Answer

For the first question. I would suggest microing the Infestors to stay in the middle of the pack, possibly selecting the infestors and using the fungals first. Then quickly selecting the other units. I would almost tell you to consider having them all selected (Roaches,Lings, and Infestors) and then fungal growth as your units are moving in. Otherwise you would require a high APM to move those groups almost simultaneously to engage the enemy.

Also, you don't need to keep selecing the control group again for multiple fungals you can simply F-Click, F-Click, and repeat. As for triple clicking that is simply something you need to work on.

If you can manage to have some Burrowed infestors behind the enemy as he is moving up (already seen the attack coming and assuming he doesn't have detection) have them on a control group and burrowed and let the enemy pass then pop up from behind and take the key units under your control.

And for Infested terrans, you can have those Infestors burrowed and spam the "T" button and left click on the map where you want it. You again, don't need to select the control group again and again and shift clicking will not help at all. Simply T-Click, T-Click, and repeat. Do this very fast to spew out terrans. If burrowed you can move without getting hit typically. Even if they have detection I have noticed they don't seem to target burrowed units until there are no other attacking units in range. So just T-Click very rapidly.

Edit: As a side note, I tested Dbemerlin's idea and it does work to right click (Move) all infestors to start getting into range.

Answered by Nick122

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Does Yamato Cannon 1-hit kill an Immortal?

Question

Immortals have 100 shields and 200 hit points, but have a hardened shield that reduces incoming damage >10 to 10. I am not sure if this applies to Yamato Cannon, however, or if Yamato Cannon does reduced damage because of armor/shields.

Asked by Decency

Answer

The Battlecruiser's Yamato Cannon will ignore the Immortals special ability and kill it in one shot.

I made this video to show it in action:

It also ignores armor, even with 3 in shield and armor the Immortal will be killed in 1 shot.

Answered by Blem

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Why do Terrans drop MULEs in battles?

Question

I have seen many pro players dropping mules after and during battles. Sometimes they use scans instead.

This seems counter-intuitive, I mean they could get a ton of minerals for that.

Why do they do it? MarineKing does that very often.

Asked by ayckoster

Answer

There are three reasons that I've seen mules dropped away from the mineral line in competitive play:

Manner mules

By far the most common reason is that a Terran player has decided that they've won the game, that it's obvious that they've won the game, and the other player should have realized they've lost and gg'd out already.

Throwing down mules away from your base in that situation says "I've won so big, look at me throwing away resources, because I don't even need them to crush you completely."

It's considered impolite or (in the common SC2 phrase) "bad manner", hence the name.

Forcing the enemy to shoot their own units

Facing off against another Terran, it's possible to cause the enemy's tanks to kill each other by landing a mule in the middle of a group of sieged tanks...the tanks target the mule, and kill each other with the splash damage.

Repairing mechanical units

When an important mechanical unit or group of mechanical units (most often a Thor, but sometimes a group of tanks) is severely damaged far from the players base, that player can repair it by sending down a mule, without having to wait for an SCV to cross the map, or retreat the unit(s) back to their home base.

If the unit(s) repaired are important because of their strategic position, repairing them can be more important than the loss of minerals due to dropping a mule away from the mineral line.

Tanking damage

I haven't actually noticed it myself, so it's not in my list of three, but, as Wikwocket points out, it's also possible that a mule might be sent down to draw fire away from strategically important units, even outside of the strategy of using the enemy's tank splash damage against them.

Answered by Theodore Murdock

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How do I counter double-terran in 2v2 with zerg?

Question

The question is in the title. I play as zerg most of the time and I have almost no idea what to do against the terran marine-marauder-medic combo in 2v2. The normal 1v1 strategy (banelings, basically) doesn't seem to work against these masses.

Asked by Zizzencs

Answer

What you can do is get Infestors. Several of them would be ideal. When the MMM mass bunch up, drop fungal growth on them. Then burrow your infestors so they don't take damage and spam infested marines as quickly as possible (they're cheap energy so several infestors can create a mass of them quickly). Also, burrowed infestors can still spawn Infested Terrans. This is also assuming you have other units with your infestors. Roaches get kited pretty easily with Mauraders but if you use fungal growth that won't happen.

If they're a heavier Maruader build with few marines then Mutalisks will be the best counter. But don't relay heavily on them after you take out the first wave of Marauders because a smart opponent will switch to heavy marines and vikings if he sees you've gone mutas.

Answered by Mark

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Does the Blizzard downloader download cross platform files?

Question

The downloader downloads both Mac and Windows setup programs, which are both very small (< 3MB) and a lot of generic binary files.

Are these binary files cross platform? Can I use my Mac and the Mac downloader to get the setup files, and then install on my Windows PC?

I understand the need for two "installers" from the battle.net website as the downloading process needs to be platform dependant, but if the downloader downloads both .app and .exe files then it seems to be cross platform from then on.

Can anyone confirm this?

Asked by Simon Walker

Answer

Yes, Blizzard includes both the Mac and Windows versions of the installer when you download it. The "Mac/Win" link you click on Battle.net is for which version of the downloader to use.

You can use the downloaded files to install your game on either platform, regardless of which platform you downloaded them with.

Blizzard likely structured things this way so that their peer-to-peer distribution system would benefit from a larger pool of people downloading the installer, instead of splitting the swarm into separate Mac and Windows groups.

Answered by Brant

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Qualities of a good custom StarCraft 2 map?

Question

I want to start playing around with the Starcraft 2 map editor.

I am looking to design maps for standard play. What are considered good qualities of a Starcraft 2 map? I am most interested in things like player start position, location of expansions, gold minerals, clifts, ramps, etc.

Asked by Elpezmuerto

Answer

Balance is most important. Don't give someone a better start location than others.

This could include better choke points, better expansions, closer to rich mineral nodes.

Besides that, generally, modern maps have a main base, and a slightly less defendable expansion, but that's not necessarily required.

Answered by McKay

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Which StarCraft 2 maps are played most often?

Question

Getting familiar with maps is an important part of most RTS/FPS games. In most games, certain maps are more popular than others, and I assume that's also true for SC2.

I'd like to know which maps are played most often so I can focus on learning those as I start with multiplayer. I saw a related question from BlueRaja, but it was about training maps. Clearly I'll form my own opinion over time, but I like to study things as part of learning a game.

Is there a site or service that monitors gameplay and will give me an easy, factual answer--if not for all StarCraft 2 matches then for a good number of matches?

If there isn't, can anyone think of another way to find out? I'd be happy for a consensus from experienced players, though maybe that drifts too far into the subjective.

In case the answer varies by country and play level, ideally I'd like to know for US maches and low-level players.

Asked by Drew G

Answer

When you play online you don't have much control over the map you will play. You can veto some maps off but in the end, it doesn't really matter whether the map is really played a lot or not, just your personal preferences.

In tournament, a popular map choosing technique is that the first map is decided either randomly, or every 1v1 starts on the same map. In Starcraft 1 Lost Temple has been chosen like this a lot in the early days (later on, it has been judge a little imbalanced because blocking the ramp gave the terran players a slight advantage).

After the first map, either the winning (rarely) or the losing (much more often) player would decide which map is to be the next. I'd say that most of the time, a 4 players map for a 1v1 is prefered since it gives each player much more territory to expand. Sometimes, they will choose "Steppes of War" in a "I want to rush you" fashion since it is the map where the spawning spots are the closest of the whole map pool.

So, on Battle.net, the maps are random so personal preferences don't impact the game much. Some maps are better for some races or some strategies (large choke points = harder to block = easier to rush).

Answered by Eric

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Starcraft 2 maps?

Question

I am new and need to study the maps. Is there a good place to download them? All 1v1 maps. Just need decent enough resolution to print them out.

Asked by Moge

Answer

The teamliquid.net wiki has images of all the maps. The images have quite high resolution, so that all important details should be visible.

If you want to create your own pictures, you can also open the maps in the map editor and then export them as an image using Data -> Export Map Image.

You can open maps directly from battle.net and you can choose what details you want included in the exported image, so you can create your own custom images without too much trouble.

Answered by sth

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How do I limit my FPS in StarCraft 2 for Mac?

Question

I am trying to limit my FPS to 30 for Starcraft 2 on my MacBook Pro (after a while the machine heats up and the FPS drops) - I understand I need to add a few lines to the variables.txt file:

frameratecap=30
frameratecapGlue=30

My problem though is that I cannot find the variables.txt file! A few threads seem to indicate it should be under Users/{username}/Documents/Blizzard/Starcraft II, I found that path (username = shared) but no trace of variables.txt, so I went ahead and created one, but it has no effect on the fps (it is still shooting up to > 100).

Any help appreciated!

Asked by JohnIdol

Answer

I don't think that's the correct path, I have the following file on my machine:

/Users/username/Library/Application Support/Blizzard/StarCraft II/Variables.txt

I don't see the frame rate variables but there's plenty others, so try adding them there.

Answered by Grzegorz Adam Hankiewicz

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Can I control which nuke will be launched?

Question

Assuming I have multiple nukes ready at different ghost academies, when I launch a nuke, which one will be used? There are times when I want to choose the nuke to use, for example during a base race where I'd like to use the ghost academy that will be killed first.

Asked by tenfour

Answer

No, there is no way to choose your nuke. They are launched in sequence. Meaning the nuke you build first gets shoot first.

This means you can choose the order before you build them, but you cannot change it afterwards.

Source: I opened a game, build 2 silos and tried everything to change the order. There just is no UI to change the order. I even tried to select 1 Ghost and 1 Silo while launching, still no effect.

Answered by ayckoster

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Is there a tool that checks for cheats and hacks in a given replay?

Question

Starcraft and Warcraft 3 had both sophisticated tools to check if someone cheated during a game (BWChart and W3Chart). They checked for strange behavior and impossible clicks, like selecting opponents units which are disguised by fog of war.

Does such a tool exist for Starcraft 2?

Asked by ayckoster

Answer

SC2Gears is your best bet. I don't know if it's capable of checking for out-of-vision selections at this time, but if not you can suggest it to the creator who's pretty active in updating it.

Answered by Decency

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Can you Mule-click on a mechanical to repair it?

Question

When you do a mule drop in order to repair a mech, can you click on the mechanical unit itself while doing the drop, or do you have to wait for the mule to appear, and then order it to repair?

Asked by ripper234

Answer

I tested this in a custom game vs an AI opponent.

You cannot click on the mech unit with the MULE target. You must click on the ground beside the unit to drop the MULE, select the MULE, then right click on the target to start repairing it.

You must turn on auto-repair for it to automatically start repairing other nearby mech units.

Answered by Sorean

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Do I have to complete a mission to earn an achievement in SC2

Question

I have just started a level, quickly got an achievement I needed. Now can I just quit the level and still have the achievement or do I have to play and complete the level before I gain the achievement?

Asked by Ryan Murphy

Answer

No you don't have to complete the mission, however you do have to be connected online.

Answered by GraeningM

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What region should I choose for Starcraft 2?

Question

North America or Europe?

I'm from EU, but I heard that the US region has more players, maps etc. is that true?

Asked by Katie

Answer

There doesn't seem to be any significant difference between number of players/skill levels at the lower tiers.

Maps cannot be uploaded to the EU server by, let's say, an NA mapmaker without an EU account, but they can be shared across the Internet via other means, and be uploaded by people from other regions once they get their hand on them. Some mapmakers do, however, have multiple SC2 accounts in different regions, which facilitate the spreading of the maps they make across all these regions. So based on that, there is a very good chance that the difference in map availability is minimal across regions.

Also, with the exception of SEA (Southeast Asia + AusNZ) accounts, each copy of Starcraft is restricted to the region it's purchased in. See here for confirmation.

Answered by James Jiao

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Playing SC2 Replays with double click

Question

When I double-click on an SC2replay file in brings up SC2 but then nothing happens. How can I get it to play the replay?

I am trying with a replay that's relatively recent... from April.

I'm on Windows 7 x64.

EDIT: It does not give any sort of error message as far as I can tell.

Asked by Muhd

Answer

It may be that the replay is from a previous patch, which can cause this issue.

You can view the replay by placing it in the replays folder located here:
%username%\Documents\StarCraft II\Accounts\xxxxxxxx\x-xx-x-xxxxxxx\Replays\Multiplayer
There should be a shortcut in the StarCraft II folder pointing to your account.
You can then access the replay in-game.

StarCraft II will load into the previous patch and play the replay. Note that you will be offline on Battle.net while viewing an old replay.

Answered by Ampersand

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Is there an online tournament site that let's you win money?

Question

Note that I am not talking about betting sites where in you bet on other players win. What I'm looking for is an online tournament site where in you actually play the game and if you win you get paid.

For example: You join a tournament where you pay a joining fee and if you beat all other players, you win the pot money (and you don't have to be a pro gamer to join). Anybody knows a site that runs something like this?

Asked by IMB

Answer

Playhem is the most well known Starcraft 2 tournament website in the community. They have daily tournaments and also cater to other games.

TeamLiquid also keeps track of a large number of tournaments that gets submitted to the website.

SCVRush is a relatively lesser known tournament backer as well, but they do have tournaments for different brackets on a semi-regular basis.

Answered by Sorean

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How do I properly counter a protoss turtle 4gate as zerg?

Question

the name says it all pretty much. if the protoss player plans on a 4gate, but turtles his ramp with buildings and zealots, how am I to counter that? the proper counter to a 4gate last I knew was build AFAP and pray. roaches are encouraged but its more luck than anything else as far as I remember. granted its been a loooooooong time since I played (more than a year)

Asked by Ender

Answer

I think this would be very rare from a Protoss because basically there's no benefit to delaying a 4-gate attack.

Let's think of this from the Protoss side. The point of a one-base 4-gate timing attack is to get the maximum production at the earliest time -- a time when Zerg typically has barely any units. One base cannot sustain 4 gateways worth of production. So Protoss has a small window where this timing attack is most effective, before Zerg has had the time to prepare for it with queens, creep spread, 2-base economy, spine crawlers, and attacking units.

If the attack is delayed, Protoss gives Zerg time to build all these things, nullifying the entire point of the attack. Zerg should be on two bases already by the time the attack was supposed to happen, so if the attack is delayed, Protoss is vastly behind in economy.

If you are vastly behind in economy, the ONLY way to win is to attack immediately and try to kill your opponent. Turtling only puts you further behind, as your opponent (Zerg) expands his empire.

So as Zerg, the simple advantage you have in this scenario is: more economy, more resources. You are ahead in resources which means you can simply do more of everything than Protoss in every way.

So your response to this bizarre Protoss behavior would be: Prepare enough defenses to hold off any potential attack, and use all the rest to put yourself more ahead and guarantee a win:

1. Keep scouting to see what he's doing. 4 gateways and no attack? Maybe he's throwing in some tech like DTs or stargate. If you scout effectively, there will be no surprises.
2. Scout for any hidden expansions. Burrow lings at every expo on the map. You can afford these extra units.
3. Keep a small army at his ramp to delay expansions and scout when he is trying to expand. Keep him scared to move out, so he'll invest in more turtle-style defenses.
4. Expand, safely. Don't double-expand. It can be tempting to do that but use your resources wisely. You don't need to be on 4-base against 1-base.
5. Make static defense. Make your bases drop-proof, close off ramps and high ground areas.
6. Get "just-in-case" tech like a hydralisk den, overseers, burrow, overlord speed.
7. Use the map control he's given you. Spread creep everywhere, spread your overlords for vision. Take all xel'naga towers.

When you're ahead, you don't need to take risks, and you should play safe because you can afford that luxury. Don't attack him until you are certain it will be A-move-to-GG.

Answered by tenfour

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How does energy get generated as Protoss in Starcraft 2?

Question

I often run out of energy when using Psionic storms and I then proceed to get decimated. Does it just come back on its own? Can anything hasten the process of how fast energy is accumulated?

Asked by Matt

Answer

Energy regenerates on its own for all units. The standard regeneration rate for the vast majority of units is 0.5625 per game second. The only exception to this rate is the point defense drone which regenerates at 1 energy per game second. You cannot hasten the energy regeneration rate.

Answered by en1gmatic325

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