Hey. I want to ask about core mechanics of Starcraft.
- Why Factory and Starport require Barracks? (Same for Protoss / Zerg)
- Why only 3 workers can harvest gas per geysir?
- Why base and expansion have 8 mineral pallettes and 2 geysirs?
Multiplayer balance might be most important reason for these.
1) Units are ordered into rough tiers. Tier structures put a forced delay on certain mechanics. For example, you are not going to encounter cloak mechanics before you've had an adequate amount of time to prepare. Other such mechanics are flying units, detectors, spellcasters and units that excel at harassing economy.
Tier 1 units are your basic unit that you can build after producing your first military structure, such as marines. Tier 1.5 units are those acquired after expanding upon your tier 1 stucture. For example, reapers and roaches are considered tier 1.5 units.
Tier 2 units are gained after reaching the second milestone of your race. Tier 2 and tier 2.5 units generally sacrifice raw stats in favor of unique mechanics, such as the ones mentioned above.
Tier 3 units, such as the battlecruiser and ultralisk, can be seen as upgraded versions of a tier 1 counterpart (battlecruiser <-> marine, ultra <-> zergling) as they fill similar (but not identical) roles. They are generally considered to be more cost-effective than lower tier units, and the payment for this efficiency is the time to tier up.
The above is pretty much standard RTS unit design seen in almost every RTS.
2) Encourage you to expand and thus increase the surface area of your base, affording your opponent a greater opportunity to attack you. Typical risk vs reward gameplay.
3) Same as above. 8 mineral fields was chosen as it was large enough to sustain a base and a few factories but small enough that you're still encouraged to expand.
The principle is basically to start slow with only few options and branch out from there with more and more options. If all players had all the options from the very beginning it would turn into a luck-based game. I believe they actually went into that direction by making LotV much faster than HotS; but I'm not sure. Haven'T played multiplayer since WoL.
Btw. this also makes it easier for beginners to understand the game.
This is literally 95% 'for balance' and 5% 'because these values are clear and easy to grasp'. They could've just as easily placed down 80 times as much crystals that are 80 times as small and allow workers to harvest 8 crystals at the same time. It just would've been confusing as heck for a player to get into. Aside from the clarity, it's just cause when Blizzard tested this internally, 8 crystals per base and 3 workers per crystal probably resulted in the most interesting matches. More crystals in the base would mean more turtleing (and a longer economic set-up, as one would need more workers) while less crystals would mean there was so much emphasis on expansion that it was too much of a risk to pay off.
I am fixing LotW things to my campaign and it was really hard to decide what are "right" values. Some players say its multiplayer values and other say campaign values are right ones. I decided to make my own system for Terran units. I built the whole idea on 6 dps / 1 supply. I also increased "normal" damage values against non-attribute targets. I hope this kind of damage table encourages people to test all kind of units even when there is no "need" for current unit. In general I love simple formalaes that I can use for all units. And hey, its single player anyway! :)
Hey. I want to ask about core mechanics of Starcraft.
- Why Factory and Starport require Barracks? (Same for Protoss / Zerg)
- Why only 3 workers can harvest gas per geysir?
- Why base and expansion have 8 mineral pallettes and 2 geysirs?
Multiplayer balance might be most important reason for these.
1) Units are ordered into rough tiers. Tier structures put a forced delay on certain mechanics. For example, you are not going to encounter cloak mechanics before you've had an adequate amount of time to prepare. Other such mechanics are flying units, detectors, spellcasters and units that excel at harassing economy.
Tier 1 units are your basic unit that you can build after producing your first military structure, such as marines. Tier 1.5 units are those acquired after expanding upon your tier 1 stucture. For example, reapers and roaches are considered tier 1.5 units.
Tier 2 units are gained after reaching the second milestone of your race. Tier 2 and tier 2.5 units generally sacrifice raw stats in favor of unique mechanics, such as the ones mentioned above.
Tier 3 units, such as the battlecruiser and ultralisk, can be seen as upgraded versions of a tier 1 counterpart (battlecruiser <-> marine, ultra <-> zergling) as they fill similar (but not identical) roles. They are generally considered to be more cost-effective than lower tier units, and the payment for this efficiency is the time to tier up.
The above is pretty much standard RTS unit design seen in almost every RTS.
2) Encourage you to expand and thus increase the surface area of your base, affording your opponent a greater opportunity to attack you. Typical risk vs reward gameplay.
3) Same as above. 8 mineral fields was chosen as it was large enough to sustain a base and a few factories but small enough that you're still encouraged to expand.
The principle is basically to start slow with only few options and branch out from there with more and more options. If all players had all the options from the very beginning it would turn into a luck-based game. I believe they actually went into that direction by making LotV much faster than HotS; but I'm not sure. Haven'T played multiplayer since WoL.
Btw. this also makes it easier for beginners to understand the game.
This is literally 95% 'for balance' and 5% 'because these values are clear and easy to grasp'. They could've just as easily placed down 80 times as much crystals that are 80 times as small and allow workers to harvest 8 crystals at the same time. It just would've been confusing as heck for a player to get into. Aside from the clarity, it's just cause when Blizzard tested this internally, 8 crystals per base and 3 workers per crystal probably resulted in the most interesting matches. More crystals in the base would mean more turtleing (and a longer economic set-up, as one would need more workers) while less crystals would mean there was so much emphasis on expansion that it was too much of a risk to pay off.
I am fixing LotW things to my campaign and it was really hard to decide what are "right" values. Some players say its multiplayer values and other say campaign values are right ones. I decided to make my own system for Terran units. I built the whole idea on 6 dps / 1 supply. I also increased "normal" damage values against non-attribute targets. I hope this kind of damage table encourages people to test all kind of units even when there is no "need" for current unit. In general I love simple formalaes that I can use for all units. And hey, its single player anyway! :)