New to Starcraft and RTS games and need advice

Hello! This is my first post here (besides the introduction section). I am new to Starcraft and RTS games in general (I haven't played the first SC the SC2 beta is the first RTS I've ever played) and I am currently ranked in the last 10 in the copper league on the SC2 beta. I have been playing as terran and it seems fun. I tried out protoss a couple times and zerg once. I am looking for some major major MAJOR advice. I can't seem to win and I am getting crushed, very fast. My last couple games I lost within 3-4 minutes by a protoss rush with cannons. I have a few questions.

1. Is terran the best race to start off with as a beginner? or should I be experimenting with other races?

2. Are there places where I can find build orders? Also when it comes to the build orders I get confused by the number system. What does the first and second number mean? ex; 8/11

3. After I get a decent build order, how do I know when to attack? Like when do you know when you have enough marines/mauraders etc. to attack?

4. Is it possible to rush with terran? It seems every other race can rush but terran from what I've seen in my games.

5. What exactly is macro/micro?

6. I've talked to people and they say look at the replays and I have watched a few but, what is a beginner supposed to be looking for specifically when watching the replays?

Thanks

 

Hey man, welcome! Starcraft is a lot more fast paced than most RTS games. It requires more skill, knowledge and dedication than other RTS games (IMO).

I'll just let you know what i think i know...

1. I think any race that you find fun is your best bet at improving. A good way to not get killed by a rush as terran is to "wall off" the entrance to your base so no one can get in. Here is a few examples:



2. Ok, the best place to find build orders is googleing "starcraft 2 build orders". You don't need to follow them exactly, just use them as a guide to start each match. Then you can build specific units depending on what your opponent has. Here is one of the many, many build order places:
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/index.php?show_part=34

And the "8/11".. This is really quite simple. Most build orders tell you the unit count of when you should build your next thing. The 8 is you current unit amount and the 11 is your max. I'm sure you know that if you were to build an SCV the 8 wouold turn to 9 and if you built a supply depot the 11 would increase to a higher number.

3. When should you attack? When you feel comfortable. If you can see your opponents army and you think yours can win, that's when you fight. (that's when i do anyways)

4. Yes! There are many different types of rushes though. The most common is zealots or zerglings (as im sure you know). You can go straight for reapers, they are good a traversing cliffs and getting to your opponents mineral line to take out as many workers as possible. You could also do a dropship rush. Fill 2 or 3 dropships with marines and marauders and go in the rear to dominate your opponents base.

5. Macromanagement and Micromanagement.

Macro: Looking after all your resources, unit production and just the overall bigger picture.

Micro: Focusing heavily on one thing. A good example of micro is someone who blinks one of his stalkers back behind his others just before its about to die. This way he keeps his stalker alive giving him more firepower and an edge over the other guy.

6. When i look at replays i look at how they play. A Number of things i look for are Unit composition, Unit positioning, When to expand and many other things. Try to concentrate on what is giving the winning player the edge over his opponents.

I hope this helps man.

 

first couple of things i have learned in rts is you MUST expand one base is no enough, and two unit composition must be varied, one unit cant truly deal with all things (cept maybe muta) i play protoss and as a standard i aim for three different units (specifically stalkers dark templars and collosus) i then have to vary from there. watch some replays i like crota at blizshouter personally, though he does have some excentrisities (minor) i would watch his game rather than ones he just casts as they are normally terran.

 

You are going to lose a lot as a beginner not just to SCII but to RTS games in general. The best thing you can probably do right now is to:

1) Play lots of games. Its ok to play mostly non-ladder games if you want right now (custom "big money" maps would be great if they were available in beta, but they aren't). You initial goal needs to be learning the structures/units/basic mechanics including the hotkeys and ability to recognize what is on your screen at a glance.

2) Stick with one race for most of your games. It is my opinion you will learn faster (and certainly begin to increase your win percentage faster) by focusing on one race.

Note: As you get more accustomed to the game then you should start to deviate from 1 and 2 by playing more ladder games and trying/learning other races.

3) Watch replays. They give you a good feel for what kind of strategies and build orders work, and what the different races are capable of and when. They do this better than playing in some ways in the sense that because there is no fog of war you get to see what is going on and learn timing/strategies from both sides at the same time.

Not exactly. It tends to be more intuitive in terms of what units it offers and what they do. The fact your marines will shoot guns and can probably attack ground and air is intuitive (and helpful in that you don't have to worry as much about how/when to incorporate anti-air). Tanks are good for seiging. Missle turrets probably take out air, etc.

That said, Terran is probably the most worker micro-intensive race, and it involves a lot of micro in general for your combat units as well. And you have to build different units at different buildings.

In some ways zerg is easier imo because they have little worker micro and every single unit you make is produced at the hatchery....you only need to build the appropriate tech building to enable making that kind of unit, but you always go back to your hatchery to build it.

On the other hand to really play zerg well there is a lot more micro of combat units early on. As a new player you will almost certainly feel weaker using lings than you would with say zealots.

Protoss is a good balance of the two imo, and wouldn't be a bad starting race. You could get by in quite a few games just making upgraded zealots and stalkers. You won't be winning any tournaments, but for learning purposes it could work well for you. Just make sure you work out how the pylons work (both zerg and protoss require something to build "on", unlike terran who can build anywhere).[/quote]

Scouting and experience. The first will give you the mathematical numbers of his forces vs yours. The second will allow you to both evaluate who would win using that information, and allow you to make educated guesses without scouting.

Yes, but I wouldn't recommend it since you're just learning. Instead take a look at Reaper rush/harrass build. Or Siege tank drop rushes can be fun too. Reaper harrass is very easy to learn and effective though. Not original, but effective

Macromanagement refers to controling your army as a whole, as well as broader game functions such as maintaining production of units, tech, etc.

Micromanagement refers to controlling your units on an individual/single unit level to get the most out of them. For example, if 6 lings attack-move on a single Zealot, some lings are going to die. But if you individually pull back the lings that the Zealot attacks 1-2 hits before they die, the lings will kill the zealot without any of them dying. That's one example of micromanagement.

Right now just get a feel for build orders, and what works against what when watching replays. Spend more time playing than watching replays though. And feel free to try and put what you see in replays into practice as you get better.

 

Wow! Thanks for all the great advice you guys! One last thing tho, when pulling back after getting hit a couple times like you said KHaYMaN

how do you pull back exactly? Is there an easier way to do it than manually selecting them and then clicking somewhere? Because I've tried doing that and they can't get away fast enough and my guys just die.

 

That's basically it, you either click, drag, select the unit(s) that are being ff'd or you manually select.. It takes a lot of practice.. Normally you can just hold ALT, find the unit that's taking the most dmg, release alt.. Select that unt and run it around.. If they A clicked that unit then they will follow.. Most of the time, that's not the case so you can just pull your unit back about 2-3 tiles and it will auto return to battle and aid in the defense/attack.. It takes a while to get used to, if you are having quite a bit of trouble with it, and you actually want to be a dedicated GOOD player.. Go buy Warcraft 3 chess set at your local retailer for about 20 bucks.. Then find a Micro Wars game.. That will give you plenty of practice on micro.. Or you can just learn the hard way through playing.. But remember not to put to much on your plate... As you are new, you'll want to focus on the main elements of the game.. Such as the B/O's, base structure, surround attacking etc.. Then you'll want to focus on the smaller increments of the game like micro and such.. Just take your time and enjoy the game

 

There is no better way (no in-game commands to tell a unit to pull back when it gets hit or falls below 50% health or something). This is basically the essence of micro. As you can probably imagine, zerg have enormous maximum micro potentional due to the sheer numbers they tend to accumulate, but as mere humans and not computer AI, most players cap out at what they can physically handle fairly quickly. If you watch the replays of really, really good players closely though, you will often found amazing examples of micro that have you thinking "damn, I wish I could do that."

In small numbers you can either try what the poster above me said, paying attention to health points/unit outlines (which change color as they reach various health percentages), or even just visually track which units are being hit by the animations. With units that have fewer HPs you usually want to pull them back slightly as soon as you can tell they are getting/going to get hit. That way you aren't reacting too late by the time you process that they've taken damage, selected them, and told them to move back.

In large numbers it gets more tricky. There are various methods you can use to help, such as drawing back units in small clumps, e.g. instead of trying to select the individual zergling being hit, selecting 3-4 in the general area and making them all pull back. Mostly though you are just looking at developing as much micro skill as you can, and balancing how much time you spend on micro vs macro.

Note: in this situation by "pull back" I'm referring to telling the unit to retreat just far enough that the AI on the opponent's attacking unit switches target. Of course, if they have manually told it to attack that target it won't switch. Then if you're paying attention you can lead that unit around until they give it another manual order to stop trying to kill the unit you're running around. Micro wars ftw.

There is also pulling back completely to let the unit heal. It depends on what you're trying to accomplish, although it is more common to see more expensive units sent back to heal/be healed if possible.

 

Wow! Lots of great information. Thanks, everyone I really appreciate it! Also, I am excited and disappointed that Blizzard finally released an official date. Disappointed because I pre-ordered the Collectors Edition and they said June 2nd and excited because it's coming out! So far, this game seems like it's going to be amazing! I wonder if the actual game is going to have more units/buildings that they haven't unveiled yet.

 

This is some really good advice and information. But I have some questions...

I seriously am not getting this Build Order thing at all. I read what SimBob wrote but I still don't get it. What does 8/8 or whatever mean?

 

this is micro http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuugycc71Pw
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vapor genie vaporizer

 

I've seen a lot of these "new to Starcraft need help!" threads, including one I made. I was wondering if anyone (regardless of skill level) would like to friend me in Starcraft and we could work on some of this stuff, like micro. It's a bit difficult to work on micro-ing in game, but I figured if we set up a custom game we could just work on microing. Anyone interested?

 

I'll friend anyone and spend time helping them learn to micro... I can't promise that I'm amazing at scII... I'm decent.... micro is one of my strengths; I was a 75% TFT player. I can help with hotkeying, unit focusing, placement, advantages, surrounds, what to focus + how, etc. I'm a decent solor (~30-15 gold right now... I should bump up to platinum soon)

Retribution.phillie anyone's free to add me.

Cheers,
gl hf
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BlueTec