The central objective in any StarCraft (multiplayer or single player) game is to defeat opponents (human or computer-controlled) by overpowering them, usually by destroying all of their buildings. Some single-player missions and custom maps feature different objectives.
Race asymmetryEdit
StarCraft is a strategy game based around 3 asymmetrical 'races' (protoss, terran, and zerg) designed to vary dramatically in play styles, but retain fair and balanced game play. The mechanics of this design contrast to StarCraft's predecessor: Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness, which has two races with a nearly identical selection of units that differentiate only graphically.
General DifferencesEdit
Each race derives its unique game strategy though its respective unit philosophy. As such, the player's choice of race is crucial, because each race requires a completely different playing style.
Protoss units are typically more powerful and durable, at the cost of being extremely expensive. Resident evil 2 rocket launcher. The primary protoss mindset is to use a smaller number of much more powerful units to tank an enemy. For example, the first available protoss ground warrior (the 'zealot') is twice as expensive as its Terran counterpart, and four times as expensive as its zerg counterpart, however, even 2 enemy units against one Zealot would side in favor of the Zealot.
Terran units are generally fragile, control-intensive units with specialized purposes. Terran units have been designed to be used in junction with each other, in strategic combinations and formations - often mimicking real-world warfare tactics. For example; a basic terran combination is to take marines (ranged gun-wielding units), use an ability called 'stimpacks' (similar to instant steroids - making units temporarily stronger at the cost of health) alongside medics (able to constantly heal other units) to engage more enemies than otherwise would be possible.
Zerg units are cheap, and fast to produce en masse. The insect-like zerg are designed around swarm tactics, and while no single zerg unit could stand up easily to its counterpart, several units can overwhelm and flank an opposing unit. For example, four zerglings (the first available zerg foot soldier) cost the same as a single protoss zealot, and (depending on upgrades) could make short work of the unit.
Imbalances and CorrectionsEdit
StarCraft is often praised for its well balanced units and racial abilities: no matter which race is chosen, players of equal skill have more or less equal chances to win a game, even though the races are highly dissimilar. The balance between the races has occasionally been fine-tuned by tweaking characteristics of individual types of units, such as in expense, build time, or duration of a unit's spells (special abilities that a unit may use instead of regular attacks), with the changes incorporated in a software update that is included in new CD prints and that must be downloaded to play online, along with changes made to pre-existing units in the expansion pack StarCraft: Brood War. For example; in an update subsequent to the release of Brood War, the duration of the 'Disruption Web' spell (an ability that temporarily prevents ground units underneath the web from attacking air units) cast by protoss corsairs was substantially reduced, in response to what became perceived as the extraordinary advantage provided by the Disruption Web in the original Brood War release.
Fundamental Terran DifferencesEdit
Fundamental Zerg DifferencesEdit
Fundamental Protoss DifferencesEdit
ResourcesEdit
Like most real-time strategy games, the game is centered around resources. Resources are needed to construct units and buildings and more advanced units require more resources. In order to win, players need to balance between quickly expanding to resource locations to gather as many resources as possible, defending those locations against the enemy, and preventing the enemy from gathering them for themselves. StarCraft features two kinds of resources: minerals (required for all units) and Vespene gas (required for upgrades and more advanced units). Minerals appear as blue crystalline formations protruding from the ground and are 'harvested' by worker units (drones, SCVs, or probes, depending on the race) while Vespene gas appear as green clouds forming above geysers. Vespene gas, unlike mineral crystals, can only be harvested after a refinery building is constructed over the geyser.
As in many other RTS games, players cannot create an arbitrary number of units; each unit has a 'supply/support' rating that adds to a pool. Each race's main building provides a certain supply capacity at the beginning of the game. If the player is to build more units after reaching this capacity, they must build units or buildings providing additional supply to extend their supply pool (supply depots for terrans, pylons for the protoss, and overlords for the zerg). The game sets a maximum supply of 200 for each player; beyond this limit the player can no longer create units even if more supply-providing units or buildings are produced. However, protoss dark archons can mind-control additional units even if the supply limit is reached and can allow the creation of a mind-controlled army with its own 200 maximum supply by a mind-controlled Zerg Drone or Terran SCV creating a Hatchery or Command Center, respectively. Smaller, weaker units use as few as a half supply (2 zerglings are spawned for 1 supply) whereas larger ones, like battlecruisers or carriers, uses up to six. Overlords take up no supply. Supply can be seen as a third resource, because it has to be managed at least as carefully as minerals and Vespene gas, especially at the beginning of the games.
Besides using a dark archon, there is one exception to the 200 maximum supply. If a player chooses to play custom or multiplayer mode, the player can change the game settings to 'Team Free For All'. The player then chooses to make his team the same race. This gives the player 800 as a supply limit. This is not recommended when it comes to zerg or playing with more than two players, since it will probably make game lag very badly when one comes up to those numbers.
Battle gameplayEdit
Starcraft uses distinct attack types and unit size types. This feature gives every unit a distinct characteristic beyond its attack/hitpoint ratio and makes some units much more effective against others.The unit size types are:
The attack types are:
It should also be noted that protoss shields take full damage from all damage types, regardless of the unit.
With this system, matchups between the races constantly change over the gameplay time as different units become available.
For example, the protoss dragoon, a unit that uses explosive attacks, can be easily destroyed by large swarms of zerglings because the Dragoon deals only half of its normal damage to small units, but the zerglings' normal attacks deal their full damage to the dragoon; also the dragoon is a large unit, allowing the small zerglings to swarm around the unit and destroy it with relative ease.
StarCraft is also unique in that all units are useful at all levels. Bottom tier units can be used effectively up to the end of the game. In addition, there is a counter to every unit in the game. This ensures that unit diversity is required to win. That is, simple massing of one powerful unit is bound to fail, as it could easily be defeated with the proper units. For instance, masses of marines and medics are a powerful force but can easily be countered by zerg lurkers. To counter the lurkers, siege tanks and science vessels are used. The zerg could then employ the defiler's Dark Swarm technique in addition to spreading its force out to avoid direct damage as well as splash damage from the tanks. The terran would then focus on using the science vessel's Irradiate ability to kill the defilers, which would cause the zerg to create scourge to efficiently destroy the science vessels. However, the scourge could just as easily be defeated by the marines. This is just one example of how StarCraft can become a game of counters.
Unit movementEdit
Starcraft units also have variable speed and maneuverability, which can be very important in determining whether a unit can strike while the enemy is unready or can allow units to retreat from an uneven battle.
Some examples:
The protoss zealot versus the zerg zergling: Four zerglings cost the same as one zealot, but zerglings are much more versatile at the beginning of the game and will kill the zealot, because they move so much faster and attack faster than the zealot. Later in the game, however, the zealots can have their speed upgraded to a level equal to that of the zergling. This makes the zealot useful both at the beginning of the game, where it is the first combat unit the protoss can construct, and also at the end of the game, where it becomes the fastest protoss ground unit.
The terran siege tank: With the proper upgrade, it can turn itself into a static defense unit, similar to the 'mobile artillery' units of other games. This mode, called 'siege mode,' increases its range and attack power by about 100% but forces it to remain stationary. Switching between modes takes about 2 seconds, so a Terran player usually moves his tank force in small groups, teamed up with vultures, with one group in siege mode providing cover fire for the group advancing on the enemy. This is strategy is called 'tank-push' (or terran push).
StarCraft also features aerial units that can travel freely over the map without having to travel through choke points to get to enemy bases. A common strategy is to take six to twelve mutalisks and kill undefended workers before reinforcements arrive. Furthermore, these air units have no collision, thus air units can be stacked on top of each other taking up very little space. This allows skilled players to maneuver large airborne armies around anti-air defenses and strike vulnerable areas. Their drawbacks are that they are more expensive and require the player to have built more specialized buildings before they can be constructed than ground units. Generally, they are also somewhat weaker and can be countered by specialized units and buildings, such as the corsair (Brood War only), valkyrie (Brood War only), devourer (Brood War only), scourge, missile turret, photon cannon, and spore colony.
Unit sight range, visibility, and detectionEdit
Players are only able to observe the map areas in proximity to their units and buildings (there are a few exceptions, including parasites, allied vision, and ComSat station's scanner sweep). Unexplored landscape shows as complete darkness to the player. Previously explored landscape is 'remembered' but covered in the so-called fog of war where enemy units may exist unseen. Most units see slightly farther than they can shoot, but there are exceptions (e.g. Terran Siege Tank in siege mode).
Some units are invisible or can become untargetable in certain states. Such units can only be targeted if the enemy player has a detector unit or building present, or if a special ability is invoked. There are many ways to counter cloaked units without detectors, but these may be very hard or risky to execute. Such examples include having a siege tank in siege mode attack near a cloaked ground unit, causing the cloaked unit to take splash damage or attacking one of one's units with a reaver that is near cloaked units and putting the unit inside a shuttle before the scarab hits the units.
Though both units and buildings may be detectors, no building is ever untargetable. Units that can become untargetable are the following:
Units frozen under a stasis field cannot be attacked, moved, loaded, or teleported.
'Cloaked' units feature a visual effect of distorting the images of the ground beneath them, most noticeable when the units move, which limits their invisibility to enemy players. But unlike the game's predecessor, Warcraft II, units cannot be commanded to 'Attack Ground' in order to manually hit units without targeting them. Untargetable units can still be damaged or destroyed as a result of 'splash damage' or 'area-effect' spells.
Ground-level note: Units at the bottom of a cliff cannot see anything on the top of the cliff. If the player with units below uses an aerial unit to reveal enemy units on the high ground, however, the ground units on the bottom can also attack targets on the top (with 70% accuracy). There is an exception to this, which is when the units on the top attack the bottom level: the units can be seen for a while, enabling counter-attack (again with 70% accuracy).
Special-ability notes: Detector units lose their detection abilities when they are Blind (affected by the terran medic's 'Optical Flare' ability in Brood War). Invisible units can sometimes be forcefully de-cloaked by invoking EMP Shockwave or Feedback (on energy-consuming cloakers only) or by casting the area-effect spells Ensnare, Plague, or Stasis Field or by a devourer's Acid Spores. Many spells leaving effects on units will keep them continuously visible to every player (e.g. Maelstrom, Lockdown, Defensive Matrix, Acid Spores, Irradiate); these abilities do not require the unit to be visible while the spell is cast. However, the zerg Parasite only enables vision to the caster of the spell. Zerg Parasites not only can keep otherwise invisible units visible but also can make enemy detectors relay their detection to the player. The ComSat station's satellite scan reveals an area of the map, including cloaked units.
Single-player gameEdit
There are two modes of play for solitary players: a series of single-player missions, divided into three episodes (one for each race, plus three more episodes in StarCraft: Brood War) and the possibility to play custom games either allied with or against up to 7 computer-controlled opponents.
The single player missions serve the double purpose of telling the game's story and introducing players to the units and specifics of each race. These missions mostly require the player to destroy several different enemy bases; sometimes additional objectives like protecting certain 'heroes' (special units) or destroying specific buildings (such as a Confederate Ion Cannon in the last terran mission of StarCraft), bringing units to a specified position, or defending a base against incoming assaults for a given period of time. Since they are also intended to gradually introduce the units unique to each race, many missions place restrictions on the units and technology the player has at his/her disposal for the duration of the mission. For example, in the first missions of StarCraft, the player cannot build advanced units like battlecruisers or 'research' powerful upgrades like the siege tank's siege mode (which enables terran siege tanks to do more damage). Usually, the player already has a more or less established base and a number of combat units at the beginning of the single-player missions.
Custom games in the Melee mode (the mode most often used) against computer opponents are very similar to online games against other human players, with the exception that computer controlled players often display very characteristic behaviors (like the ability to give several orders simultaneously, or distinctive building and expansion patterns). Both the players and any computer players (up to 7 can be set up) start with only a main building (the building used to produce workers) and four workers, regardless of the race selected. No combat units are provided at the beginning. Players, human and computer-controlled, must then set up a base as quickly as possible and start producing combat units in order to overpower enemy forces. The game is won when all enemy buildings are destroyed (this opens up the possibility of crippling an enemy by destroying all units, but not the buildings.)
Multiplayer gameEdit
StarCraft users can play against other players via a LAN or the Internet, using Blizzard's free Battle.net gaming network. The most popular game type is a 1 vs. 1 duel played in Melee mode. This game type is won by destroying all of the opponent's buildings. There is a game type called 'One on One.' but for most players don't use it, because it takes time to switch between types, whereas 'Melee' can do free for all and 1 on 1 death matches as well as more than 2 team games. However, other, less commonly played game types also exist.From StarCraft.org:
A One on One duel with reasonably experienced players (played at highest game speed), typically lasts between 8 and 30 minutes, the average being about 15 minutes. Traditionally the game does not end with the utter annihilation of one party. Instead, the losing player, when he does not see any chance of winning, sends the message 'gg' (good game) and leaves the game, resulting in an automatic victory for their opponent.
There is a limited amount of resources at each location, and after the resources have depleted at each mineral node, it will disappear and players must send their workers to mine from somewhere else. Depending on what race the players choose, one player might need to expand to considerably more resource locations in order to win the game.
Measuring masteryEdit
Many StarCraft players recognize three skills essential to becoming a good player: micro-management, macro-management and multi-tasking.
Sometimes actions per minute (or APM) is used as a quantitative indicator of one's ability to micro- and macromanage. A player's APM rating is determined by calculating the average number of actions that a player performs during each minute beyond the first 80 seconds of a game. An action in StarCraft is defined as selecting a unit/building or giving an order to a unit/building. The way you select the action does not matter, i,e. selecting attack and left clicking on a target is the same as right clicking it, since it is the default action, it is just 1 action (the orders are recorded complimentary with their intended target, if one is required, so it counts just as one action, so if you select an order and cancel it nothing will be recorded in the replay file); creating a building does not count as 3 actions, but just 1, although you have to select the appropriate sub menu for basic or advanced buildings, select the building needed, and designate the building location.
Having a high APM rating does not necessarily mean that one is a skilled, or even decent player; but a high APM rating usually indicates a fast, active player. In other words, though a high APM does not guarantee success, a very good player almost always has a high APM. Professional gamers (such as those in South Korea) have been known to achieve average APM ratings of over 300, and peak APM ratings, such as during a battle, of over 600 and sometimes, although during a splitsecond their APM can rise higher than 1000. Even the 'slowest' progamers have an average of 250 APM during a game (more than 4 actions per second). The computer program BWChart allows StarCraft players to determine their APM rating for a recorded game.
A typical multiplayer gameEdit
Even though new tricks and tactics are still being discovered despite the game's age, it is possible to outline what usually happens in a 'one-on-one' between experienced players.
The map and thus the resource locations are known to both players. However, many multiplayer maps have several possible start locations. In a Melee game, each of the players is randomly placed on the map at one of the possible spawn points, unaware of their opponent's position. Everything out of the sight radius of their units appears black, any buildings or terrain that has been seen at least once by a player's units will be shown grayed out in the last known status — this effect simulates fog of war. Each player starts with four resource-collecting units (SCVs/drones/probes) and the structure needed to build more workers (command center/hatchery/nexus), near a resource location.
General theoryEdit
Generally, StarCraft strategy depends on effective spending. There are three areas to focus one's spending: unit quantity, technology, and economic strength. Skilled StarCraft players generally have a keen grasp of when to invest in each, depending on their race and the opponent's. For example, in the early game, a protoss player may construct two gateways relatively quickly in an attempt to seize the quantitative advantage. He could also construct a quick forge instead in an attempt to 'tech', or possibly expand rapidly with some combat units for defense, in order to gain the economic advantage.
In each case it is important for the opponent to make an educated decision on what to do depending on their races. For example, it is difficult for a terran to defeat a teching (focusing on technological development) protoss through sheer quantity of first-tier units - if the terran cannot win with his superior numbers of marines and medics by the time the protoss technology kicks in, his troops will quickly die to reavers, psionic storms, or a good number of speed-upgraded zealots/well micromanaged range-upgraded dragoons (depending on what the protoss researched). The terran will not have an advantage in any of the three areas. Therefore, the terran's best bet is to upgrade technology as well. If the terran, however, sees the protoss expanding quickly, they may be better off upgrading technology initially (perhaps dropping tanks on a cliff overlooking the protoss expansion base, in an attempt to nullify the economic advantage).
In another sense, however, unit quantity matters less and less as numbers increase. When both sides only have 2 dragoons, it is unwise to spend minerals expanding because the extra 3 dragoons that could have been trained will be sorely missed in a battle against a numerically superior foe. However, if both sides have 24 dragoons, the value of additional troops is severely diminished, and the minerals are better spent increasing one's advantage in another area.
Furthermore, battles are a key factor in the gameplay. After winning a decisive battle, it is generally unwise for the victor to immediately try to finish off the opponent, because they are most likely concentrating all their resources on constructing troops to match the victor's army, or constructing a powerful defense around their main base. Instead, it is more important to expand, while making sure that the opponent doesn't. Although the loser of the battle may end up with a slight troop numerical advantage, the victor's economic strength is so great that the loser cannot possibly hope to match the massively increased flow of units. This is why many players frequently exit before all their buildings are destroyed - they realize after losing several critical battles they can no longer maintain map control and can do nothing to prevent the victor from securing a massive economic advantage, to be converted into superior troop quality and quantity.
Early gameEdit
Both players start collecting resources immediately after the game has started. zerg players, controlling the only race starting with a movable unit not usable or required for resource gathering, will often use their Overlord to scout (look for the enemy) right from the start. Other players will wait a minute or two before sending one of their workers to scout, so as not to lose any resource collection capacity during the crucial beginning phase. Scouting to keep informed about incoming threats and weaknesses of the opponent's strategy is a vital part of the game. Throughout the game, players position cheap and/or cloaked units (i.e. burrowed zerglings), or fast-moving units at strategically important positions in the map.
As players start scouting, they also start building the structures needed to accomplish their first goals. A player can prepare for an early attack ('rush'), fortify his base against such attacks, focus on building his 'tech-tree' to have advanced units earlier in the game, or expand his base in order to outmass the enemy in the long-term. Each strategy has its strengths and weaknesses. Temporary advantages can be gained at the cost of long-term disadvantages and the other way around. This creates a pressure to be informed about the enemy's movements and use the edge while it exists.
If the player chooses to attack early, then he will start doing so after 4 or 5 minutes. There are several known tactics for early attacks and how to best protect oneself against them. When two 'gosu' (skilled players) play against each other, early attacks can be as dangerous for the attacker as they are for the defender. Indeed, a large economic commitment must be made in order to have any hopes of succeeding in defeating the opponent in an early attack, and the attacker must neglect other parts of his economy. This decision can later put him in a difficult position, should the 'rush' fail. Very short games usually are the result of a successful or unsuccessful rush.
Expansion and struggle for resourcesEdit
If both players survive the first 10 minutes, they start the battle for space. The players will try to get and hold as many resource locations as possible as well as prevent their opponent from doing so. The players start this quest with the handicap or the advantage they acquired during the early game. During this part of the game, the players will stock up their army and try to weaken their enemy by various attacks on resource locations, tech-buildings (structures required to research upgrades and build advanced units), as well as production facilities.
Different races typically require different amounts of map control. Zerg, for example, is usually played to dominate the map quickly, due to their cheaper expansion bases, whereas a good terran player can often get by on one mid-game expansion and just deny the enemy from getting more expansions of his own. The battle for map-control often depends on the racial matchups.
During the rest of the game both players will try to obtain resource domination. A considerable resource control advantage can still be broken by finding weaknesses in the opponent's strategy, a come-back. A simple example of this is to build a lot of air units, when the opponent has little anti-air defense, because they had built units for large-scale ground combat. Another common example is using a transport to drop units in the center or back of the opponent's base, far from the frontal defenses and units. Sooner or later one player will start dominating the game, winning more and more ground. Because small advantages tend to increase over time and players will prevent each other from harvesting, the total length of a game is rarely limited by the amount of resources, but rather the amount of resource locations on the map. Long games are rare.
EndingEdit
In a typical ending the stronger player sends a massive amount of combat units towards the other player's main base. The losing player tries to delay the attacker in order to collect his troops for defense. The attacker will push the defender to the outskirts of the base, still with enough troops to defeat the enemy on his own ground. The defender, having almost no troops left and the opponent's army at the outskirts of his main base, surrenders. However, players often surrender before a massive attack happens, because they realize they won't be able to get a resource advantage anymore.
Games also come to an end if one player can force another into a position where they can no longer function. One example is when a player destroys all of the enemy's workers at a time that the enemy has less than 50 minerals (the cost of one worker). Another example is destroying all of an enemy's main buildings (command center, nexus, hatchery/lair/hive) at a time that they have fewer than 400 minerals (300 for a hatchery), the cost of one of these structures. Both of these scenarios effectively cripple a player's economic ability. However, it is generally a fluke to have this happen, so it should not be intentionally played for.
Longer, drawn out games usually end in a battle for the last resource location on the map, where the attacker desperately launches an offensive with his last forces to capture the location, while the player currently controlling it, fortifies it, by whatever means possible.
MatchupsEdit
These descriptions are meant as a general guide to human competition. Actual games, especially at lower levels, often involve 'cheese' strategies, such as dark templar rushes, placing {{link|siege tank|SC1]]s on cliffs, rushing with photon cannons/bunkers/sunken colonies. Map structure and player skill play far larger roles in determining imbalances between races than the races themselves, so statistical analyses are typically skewed by which maps were most popular at the time. Most maps tend to follow a T > Z > P > T pattern.
ReferencesEditExternal linksEdit
Objectives
Place the Gurubashi Challenge Flag down inside the Battle Ring, then defeat the Gurubashi Arena Challenger.
Provided item:
Description
The arena is a place of battle unlike any other. Inside, you have no friends. Alliances that do form are fleeting, as your allies can turn on you in the blink of an eye. Horde vs. Alliance, Alliance vs. Alliance, Horde vs. Horde.. anything goes.
Take this battle standard, <race>, and place it down on the arena floor. Defeat the summoned combatant, then return to me.
Stay on your toes, <race>. Anything goes inside the Gurubashi Arena.
Rewards
You will receive: 9 40 (16 54 at 80)
Progress
Why don't you get a little bit more blood on your armor before you speak with me again?
Completion
Well done, <race>! Did you feel it? The rush of the melee? The true risk of free-for-all combat?
As today is your first day here, I'll let you perform in one more competition for another reward. If you return in the future, you may compete again, once a day. Your rewards will, of course, improve as you become stronger.
Starcraft Melee Vs Free For All DownloadProgression
Patch changes
External links
Retrieved from 'https://wow.gamepedia.com/index.php?title=Gurubashi_Challenge:_Free-For-All_Arena_Combat&oldid=5213203'
For clarification, I know that you pick custom when you want special maps like Sotis or TD maps, and melee if you want good ol' RTS style. But why do we have to select 'custom game' to earn achievements? why not melee?
McKay
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corrodedcorroded
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1 Answer
This is confusing because there are two definitions for Custom in StarCraft II. There is the overarching Custom Game type which can have a Custom category or a Melee category.
Custom Game encompasses all games which are not one of the following:
You need to select Custom Game and the Melee category to earn achievements under the Custom Game achievement section. The reason for this is Melee category games always have the same conditions for victory--destroy all opponent buildings--whereas Custom category games can have any number of victory conditions, such as destroying the Nexus in Nexus Wars or defeating all waves of creeps in a Tower Defense game.
cowgodcowgod
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