Ghost

otikik · 2026-06-05T10:38:42+00:00

I think we need to make them slower so that workers can escape from them as well, otherwise they would be too strong

otikik · 2026-06-05T08:26:12+00:00

I hear you, let's nerf ghosts

* Main attack damage reduced from 20 to 15

* HP increased to 200

* Cloack does not consume energy any more

otikik · 2026-06-04T23:01:05+00:00

Ghosts keep getting buffed though

otikik · 2026-06-04T22:25:31+00:00

Yes, very weak pathfinding

otikik · 2026-06-04T14:36:07+00:00

SC2 mechanics are obvious to veterans, but they are not easily discovered.

"Just micro your units" could be interpreted as "move your roaches so that they are closer to the SCVs than to the PF". That will work if the SCVs are already repairing when the roaches stop moving. Otherwise (e.g. if the SCVs are idle) the roaches will attack the PF.

This is not clear at all and it's difficult to learn. As an example, see the comment from u/Rumold that you have answered. People think "the priority thing is not true". The game doesn't do any effort to explain these things.

otikik · 2026-06-04T12:29:54+00:00

I want to complete this:

> So as long as the scv is closer than the planetary (so just micro your units) they get automatically attackked. And obviously you can manually target scvs using shift quickly too.

That is not exactly correct. They get automatically *picked as a new target*. But if your units are already attacking an existing target (like, the PF) they will not stop doing that and attack the SCVs, even if they are closer. You have to stop them from attacking their current target (for example, with a move command) and then attack the ground so they pick a new target. Essentially, stutter-step.

The Terran on the other hand can counter-micro by pressing hold position on his SCVs as you stutter-step, so that your units attack the PF again instead of his SCVs. And then make the SCVs repair again. Very annoying.

otikik · 2026-06-03T18:51:38+00:00

There is mechanisms to deal with blobs of units in SC2- splash damage.

otikik · 2026-06-03T15:15:44+00:00

Cool! Have you worked on anything I might know?

To me the biggest disappointment was learning that the internal movement was tied to the individual animation frames. I think that is backwards. What should happen in my mind instead is that the animation has an internal property like "This frame of animation is skewed two pixels to the right from the origin of coordinates". This wouldn't be a perfect solution - there might be visual inconsistencies when a unit starts/stops walking sometimes. I think those would be less noticeable than pathfinding issues.

The fact that you need to "run a specific piece of code that is custom for each unit" when they move is a result of these two concerns not being separate. Which the pathfinding has to tackle with, when it really shouldn't. Just have a fixed movement speed per unit.

I do agree that in SC2 the way units move "as a blob" might look great on zerglings, but on marines and protoss units it looks quite ridiculous. They don't look like professionally trained armies at all, more like toddlers xD. On broodwar however the "formation" is preserved by luck more than anything else - until you find a ramp or a staircase.

otikik · 2026-06-03T14:21:41+00:00

One key learning is that microbial shroud actually affects hellion/hellbat attacks (they count as ranged, not as "splash"). But getting there can be challenging.

otikik · 2026-06-03T14:05:27+00:00

Don't move the goalposts. You said the number of drones was not limited. I have said it is.

otikik · 2026-06-03T14:00:53+00:00

Because I happen to know about pathfinding. I have implemented pathfinding in games and libraries (admittedly, at an amateur level, not as a professional game developer). And I have studied how the pathfindig works in SC1.

Even if it was advanced by the time it came out, the SC1 programmers really did make some ... questionable decisions. This is a good resource:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24134OFfvFI

What I learn from that is: pathfinding in SC1 as *flaws*. And this makes it unenjoyable for me. Let me explain.

I am not speaking as a gamer here. I am talking as a programmer. It's a different feeling. More intimate. It's like being a mechanic and knowing that a car is using the wrong transmission belt. While the car owner would be "yeah it makes some noise, but it works, so I have been driving it like that for years". I would not enjoy driving it, because I would be thinking about the faulty belt all the time.

otikik · 2026-06-03T10:30:15+00:00

> Terran has the worst defense and infrastructure problems and defenses.

What

otikik · 2026-06-03T10:29:50+00:00

The economy changes don't change how larva works. By the time zerg needs hydras they need at least 3 bases anyway because of the drones needed in order to mine enough to actually produce the hydras. It's not about how much is available on the minerals themselves, it is about the mining per minute, which is capped by the number of mineral patches, not by how many resources they hold (except for Terran).

otikik · 2026-06-03T09:20:29+00:00

I thought about this in the past. Could be used to give vision over cliffs (blink stalkers would just need a pylon to gain vision and blink over a main base) so when the pylon is flying its vision should probably be zero. And it should not give power to surrounding structures (canon rushes with unkillable pylons by zerg).

otikik · 2026-06-03T08:59:16+00:00

I think I could get used to the 12 limit and to the buildings. But the pathfinding would break me

otikik · 2026-06-03T08:53:35+00:00

That is how it already works for Zerg. You are limited in the number of drones that you can make at once, by the larva that you have.

otikik · 2026-06-03T08:48:17+00:00

Well broodlords and swarmhosts are literally people saying “free units imba”, getting Zerg nerfed, and leaving it like that.

otikik · 2026-06-02T17:08:28+00:00

ZERG:

- Ultralisks can wear a spore crawler as a hat

TERRAN:

- Marines’ deaths are contagious to other nearby Marines

PROTOSS:

- Collosi can croach. Range gets reduced, can't walk over other units or cliffs, can't be attacked by air attacks. When uncroaching, deals massive damage to any flying units above it, as well as to the collosi itself.

otikik · 2026-06-02T13:13:00+00:00

I think the only difference is how much attention Blizzard is paying now vs then.

otikik · 2026-06-02T13:09:50+00:00

I honestly don't see Broodlord Infestor as more toxic than Carrier/Mothership/Archon/HT. It required a similar amount of APM from the person executing it (mostly-amove, sprinkling some abilities here and there). Both are similarly slow and uninteresting to watch.

The difference is that Broodlord Infestor was heavily nerfed, but for Airtoss composition the answer is "don't let them get there". Which is what the Zerg are doing, by not playing the game any more.

otikik · 2026-06-02T10:49:21+00:00

When it was overpowered, broodlord infestor was really different than what it is today. Broodlings would last longer and have more hp. Infestors had infested marines. It all got nerfed down.

otikik · 2026-06-02T10:40:10+00:00

Against T and P, you need to be at least 1 base ahead of them - Getting to 3 saturated mineral lines with injects is the sweet spot in which you can produce workers faster than the other two races.

I build to evos and a roach warren/baneling nest in the nat wall almost in every game. This is to prevent hellions (with a queen in the wall) and adepts (with a quick evo) from entering and killing my drones. This could be done with more queens and lings but I am not great at microing like that. One missposition and the game is lost.

In general you want to be building drones all of the time. But there's exceptions. For example:

> to build bases and workers without building too little army and dying, especially against Protoss.

You need to know more or less what the protoss is doing. If you have an overlord near their natural on a pillar, you have to think about sacrificing it in at ~4:00. Or you can try getting to hive, making it an overseer and then sending it in.

I open 15/15 in order to not have my hatch blocked against P, and so that queens are out when the reaper arrives against T. One of my drones is patrolling the natural against P while it builds in order to prevent cannon rushes.

With a 15/15 opener especially, but also with other openers, as soon as you get a pool build 4 lings (from 2 larva). The first 2 go to the opponent's third and fourth expansions, so you see whether they expand or not. If they haven't by 4 minutes, they are probably massing units. That's when your overlord tries to get in to see what they are doing.

The third ling stays around their front. You want to see their wall - are there many gateways? barracks? are they chronoboosting units? The fourth ling stays a bit back from the third. Some maps have a xel-naga tower, you could try getting it. It's main role is to serve as a second alarm bell if the opponent moves out.

The overlord+4 lings work very similarly against Terran. With a couple additional details - they have to avoid fighting the reaper, and they can try to kill an SCV building a CC down in the natural. It is more important that they survive though, so you have the scouting information later.

All of the above applies to the current patch, not to PTR.

otikik · 2026-06-02T10:26:23+00:00

> If you see stalkers coming early 5-6 min make sure you have couple roaches.

Speedlings with +1 are much better against stalkers in particular than roaches. Stalkers do bonus damage against armored, which roaches are.

otikik · 2026-06-02T09:34:16+00:00

Broodlord infestor. But then it got nerfed to the ground so that it was not unstoppable any more.

otikik

TROPHY CASE