StarCast: The StarCraft Podcast

This week we cover the single player campaign of Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty. Zeratul stops by to deliver tidings of doom. And Kyle and I develop our first and last line of defense strategy for the new 2v2 maps in the beta. Wacky SC2 kart racerTidings of Doom Cinematic

We have a date!  July 27th we will all be losing a lot of sleep playing Starcraft II.   Again, Kyle and I can't thank everyone who has subscribed to Starcast this past week and even more thanks to those of you who left 5 star reviews.  You all PWN! Shurafa's Unit Sheet

On this week's Starcast we cover Patch 12, the upcoming beta restart and with it the promise of 3v3's and 4v4's.  We also discuss the extensive Blizzard developer chat via Twitter, now available for your viewing on Blizz's forums.  We get some Protoss love from David, a listener from Garrett's home state of Florida.  As well as an our first e-mail question. Beta Patch 12 Blizzard's Developer Chat David's Wall in Segment David's Protoss VS Zerg

On Episode 7 of Starcast we have a news avalanche.  Patch 13 came and destroyed everything we hold dear in Starcraft II.  Crashes, bugs, and a slew of terrible things befell the beta this week.  Blizzcon tickets go on sale.  Wings of Liberty collector's editions are selling out at major retailers.  Korea gets a censored version of SC2.  And a scandal in Korea's pro-gaming circuit.  We also had a wealth of emails and calls this week.  Big thanks to Joel, David, and Patrick for the segments they sent in for the strategy segment.  8 Bit Starcraft

News SC2 beta gets extended for another week June 7th specifically No battlenet chat rooms, SC2 is region locked, and no LAN Blizzard strikes a deal with a new broadcast company for e-sports in Korea Kyle plays some Custom Maps 3v3 and 4v4 Strategies David covers High Templars, Archons, Psionic Storm use, and Colossi in his segment this week. Joel Duggan shows a "whole lotta love" for the Marauder in his Terran segment Josh from Seattle writes in with an extensive Zerg strat (read below) *Josh's Zerg Tips Creep Advancing Creep Tumors are important.  Creep not only reduces the time it takes to get your units in a forward position, but it also provides map vision as well.  Considering how invaluable map intel is in SC2 and the fact that all creep advancement will cost you is attention and some energy from your Queen, this is an approach that should be used in every match.  Practice it until it becomes an automatic command you issue every game. Burrow can save lives! Any player worth his salt is going to send an auxiliary force at your money line.  Since its usually a suicide squad (if land based), they are unlikely to include detection with that group.  This obviously isn't all that useful against Terran due to Scan, but against Zerg and Protoss, it can usually save you a lot of grief the first time you get caught like this. NEVER stop Spitting! Being Zerg, your goal is to overrun your opponent with mass units with superior macro as early as possible.  After you have gotten good at producing enough drones and expanding, the surefire way to further improve your massing capacity is to practice Queen spitting throughout the entire match.  It doesnt matter if you are control capped, light on minerals, or whatever, just keep spitting as often as possible.  The main point to consider is that larva do not expire as long as they are on creep, so you need to constantly be producing larva throughout the match nonstop.  This also includes expansions as well! The more larva you have at your bases, the easier it will be to stay at control capacity throughout the match, which as zerg, is precisely what you need to do to win.  Having a flood of larva at your disposal with a strong economy means that you will be able to bounce back from engagements faster than your opponents. Say for example you and an opponent trade forces in the middle of the map... you look back at your bases and you are sitting on 8 - 10 larva at each hatchery... within 30 seconds of both players losing most of their units, you could have 60 zerglings as a follow up force to wreck any (now undefended) expansions, or just go straight for their main money line. Numbers account for everything as zerg, and Queen spitting is the last piece of the great zerg macro machine... just after drone production and expanding of course. Tech Switching This is somewhat related to Larva production.  Even if you don't think you will need a particular unit, diversify your military buildings, because one of the best things Zerg can do is instantly respond with something unexpected.  Having the ability to start with one strategy and instantly flip to another is a great advantage that is not shared by the other races.  This capacity to switch production on the fly will keep your opponent guessing and can possibly be used to exploit a discovered weakness. This can be explored in greater depth when one gets into a meta game conversation about mid game (trying to keep the email brief as is).  So, in summary tech switching is one of the advantages zerg inherently has to take advantage of, as their units don't have the utility that Terran and Protoss do, so use it as needed! Infestor Importance Infestors are the backbone of mid and late game play.  Get them early so they are full on energy when you engage.  Without a doubt Fungal Growth is the greatest equalizer Zerg has against Colossi and massed Siege tanks.  Fungal

News Starcraft e-sport training sweat shops (aka: chicken coops) are a problem in Korea. Kotaku Link Original Article Blizzcon tickets went on sale Tuesday the 2nd and the first round is already sold out.  Some are already up on ebay for as high as $400. SC2 beta got a full database wipe with Path 15. Patch 14 happened as did Patch 15 Strategies David discusses the importance of unit composition.  As well as using the terrain to your advantage. Joel reviews the Terran Reaper with questionable results. A listener named Dook discusses caution with walling in your protoss.  He also answers Kyle and I's question on Broodlord damage as well as a great tip on how to deal with them. Dayghoul wants to know what units we hate/love the most. Sonicboomer teaches us a zerg exploit. Heychamp gives us a 3v3 strat. And for you Zerg lovers here's Josh's full zerg tip from this week's episode. Zerg Scouting Being Zerg has its advantages, and the most obvious one is your ability to be in more places at once than your opponent.  This not only means that taking the map will be easier for you, but it also means that maintaining good recon in areas you don't control will be easier too.  Your natural advantage of numbers means that you can more easily spare the manpower to camp a few zerglings on each of the map's resource nodes, so do it! Also keep in mind that this is generally going to be more of more importance in the middle stages of the game, as the threat of your opponent starting a secondary or more forward expansion will really only exist after  some time has passed.  Generally a ling or two (in case of a marine scout) is all you need to maintain constant vision at these spots. Map control Zerg need to expand quickly, pressure early, and take the map as early as possible.  IMO Zerg is usually at optimal strength early to mid game when food levels are still under 150.  In these stages you should be able to use your superior numbers and unit production to assert your control over the environment and try to deny your opponent any opportunities to expand.  Denying your opponent economic equality is one of the easiest ways to seal your victory - not only does this diminish your opponents ability to mass tech against you, but it's also psychologically discouraging as well. As with any race in SC2, you want to have economic advantage over your enemy, but i feel this is punctuated even more with the Zerg.  Allowing your opponent to expand and actually mass Tech units can potentially create a scenario that immediately flips the game to their favor.  Make no mistake, Protoss and Terran tech will punish the Zerg player when massed.  Zerg has very few adequate responses to massed Colossi or Siege Tanks.  You must do everything you can to deny your opponent the resources to mass these units against you. Distraction tactics If you happen to find a lightly defended expansion somewhere, don't attack it with the bulk of your units.  Rather, send a suitable zergling force that is likely to destroy the expansion, but keep your main force out of the fight.  Many players are going to have to respond with numbers they know will kill those zerglings and as such, will have split their units accordingly, allowing you to immediately barrel into their base with your primary forces, and diminishing the strength of their response to your attack. Another distraction tactic that is useful is actually the primary engagement itself.  Having a reserve of Speedlings on the side allow you to cause havoc on the opponents money lines during moments of engagement, when its most likely that your enemy has the bulk of his forces in the middle of the map.  The size and speed of zerglings makes it difficult to keep them from wreaking havoc on the money line once they are actually in their base.  If the base is walled off, go for a drop of lings.  If the line is defended, try for suppl

News Garrett got a Blizzcon ticket Patch 16 killed the beta Starcraft 2 get a commercial during the NBA finals Kyle doesn't know that Kerrigan was in the commercial  = P Join the Dominion hype site launced Strategies Coming back when beta comes back up Retro-Starcraft Gaming Club Terran campaign discussion Also, find Garrett in WoW.  He's on Gorefiend as an orc warrior named Fooleycooley.  Also he can be found under the gamertag Gerarde on Xbox Live.

News Patch 3.3.5 comes to WoW bringing Real Id.  A feature that will have a huge impact on how we communicate in SC2. The Starcraft Dominion site is in full swing. Retro-Starcraft Gaming Club Zerg campaign discussion.  Starcast listeners propaganda submissions Bartyism shows love for spine crawlers and the swarm. Gabe a.k.a. "Bluster" shows a whole lotta love for the dominion.

NewsKorean Air wraps their planes with the beer-scented image of Raynor.Drunken Moogle mixes a tasty beverage from zerg creep.Awesome zerg cake above!The Dominion site unlocks an awesome recap of the original Starcraft. Retro-Starcraft Gaming ClubProtoss campaign discussion.

News *Phase 2 of Beta Update released July 7th! Closes July 19th How to get back in. The bazaar fix kyle used.Add a trial account of WoW to your Battle Net account. *Patch 16 Everything reset again. Except for Real ID friends. General - Rally points now behave as a move command, instead of an attack move command. -be aware. - Enabled the ability to manually add a StarCraft II character friend using the player's character code. Character code is a server-assigned numerical code that is displayed within the Add Friend panel. - Battle.net Achievements & Rewards have been updated. - All Quick Match modes are now available: 1v1, 2v2, 3v3, 4v4, and Free For All. - All A.I. difficulties are now available for play. - Cooperative matchmaking versus A.I. players is now available as a play mode. - Enabled cross-game social features between World of Warcraft and StarCraft II. Balance Changes ZERG Infestor - Frenzy spell removed. - Infested Terran spell added. Overseer - Infested Terran spell removed. Ultralisk - Now immune to stuns and mind control. Undocumented changes: GENERAL All menu sound effects changedMany changes to all races sound effects -Zerg Voice changes.“Beta” removed from title screenNew music addedStarCraft installation directory drops from 10gb to 3.5gb as the patch deletes all previous versionsOnly 2 placement matches are required (down from 5 before and 10 at the start of the beta) A display bug incorrectly shows that only 2 placement matches are required while 5 are needed in effectXel’naga towers now look like eyes on the minimap GAMEPLAY Tabbed browsing through production buildings has been removed. Instead, units are assigned to the most efficient building. Early reports inform about many issues with this. -aka marines in your maurader barraksNeural Parasite is no longer unlimited, lasts about 12 secondsInfested Terrans last 30 seconds (from 20)Infested Terran can be cast while the Infestor is burrowed -HOLY AWESOMERoaches can no longer move under Force Fields while burrowed - :(Stalkers can no longer blink over “unpathable” terrain, meaning no more blinks across islands 30 second timers for custom games Pop up messages that have to be clicked down. More victorious victories New Attachments. *Blizzard put your real names on the forums.  On second thought, just kidding! Says Blizzard.  On Tuesday July 6th, Blizzard poster Nethaera made an official post in the forums detailing a earth-shattering change to the Blizzard forums. Quote: The official forums have always been a great place to discuss the latest info on our games, offer ideas and suggestions, and share experiences with other players — however, the forums have also earned a reputation as a place where flame wars, trolling, and other unpleasantness run wild. Removing the veil of anonymity typical to online dialogue will contribute to a more positive forum environment, promote constructive conversations, and connect the Blizzard community in ways they haven't been connected before. With this change, you'll see blue posters (i.e. Blizzard employees) posting by their real first and last names on our forums as well. http://forums.battle.net/thread.html?topicId=25626109041 The forums then erupted into an overwhelming negative response.  As of today the plans have changed.  Due to the response from players, Blizz is not going forward with the change.  Nethaera posted a response from Blizzard CEO and co-founder Mike Morhaime. I'd like to take some time to speak with all of you regarding our desire to make the Blizzard forums a better place for players to discuss our games. We've been constantly monitoring the feedback you've given us, as well as internally discussing your concerns about the use of real names on our forums. As a result of those discussions, we've decided at this time that real names will not be required for posting on official Blizzard forums. http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=25968987278&sid=1 Chat

StarCast Show #17 News: Most Valuable Poster Program MVPs are not employees of Blizzard Entertainment. Instead, they're recognized members of the community with strong social skills and understanding of gameplay. Think you have what it takes? No applications are necessary. Simply take to the forums if you’re interested and show us that you're a dedicated StarCraft II player with the drive to help make this community the best it can be. Start posting. Thats the application.link: http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/blog/275336 Blizzard is Policing User-Made Maps Blizzard poster Lylirra writes: “While players are encouraged to share the maps they create through Battle.net, published maps are subject to review to ensure that they promote a fun and safe environment for all players. You can learn more about the StarCraft II content policy here:http://us.blizzard.com/support/article/33752 If a map is found to contain inappropriate content, it will be removed from Battle.net and the map maker will be contacted via email. Should a player have any questions or concerns regarding a specific action, he or she is welcome to contact our support representatives by using the following web form:http://us.blizzard.com/support/webform.xml?locale=en_US If you see a player-made map that contains inappropriate content, simply right click on the map image thumbnail under "Details" and then select the "Report this Content" option.” Kotaku writes: The response prompted one player to question why the policy was in place for the second game and not the first, where some of the custom map names were extremely colorful. Community manager Bashiok gave the player the following answer. “Because we can. Literally. We have a support department now of size and ability to enforce these types of things. It simply wasn't possible when our in-game support used to consist of approximately 20 technical support agents. We did, however, actually police Warcraft III maps to a small degree if they were reported. But it was a rather archaic process.” Original Article: http://kotaku.com/5605333/blizzard-policing-inappropriate-starcraft-ii-maps-because-they-can Strategies________________________________________________ Shurafa’s Loot Table vs. Blizzards Beginners Guide Should the nydus worm stop screaming? Jacked by Void Rays and Dark Templars Hector As you may know, many of us are new to starcraft and we're getting our butts kicked online...   Info about strategies online is sparse or it is cryptic jargon people have been using for so long. I think it would be a good idea to have a show that goes over the SC multiplayer lingo and some strategies for each race (maybe a show per race?). At least the do's and don'ts would be awesome! The StarCraft II Dictionary, from Archon to Zergling! Even if you think you're the champion of the Terran and the bane of the Zerg, going online to some forums and seeing strategies will confuse even the most hardened player if they've never seen the terminology before.  Starcraft 1 had its fair share of this, but over the course of the many years of following it most of it could be figured out fairly easily.  With Starcraft 2 around the corner though, we here at Ten Ton Hammer don't want you to be in the dark when watching the best players and hearing seemingly foreign commentary, so here's a good start towards filling out your vocabulary. APM - Actions Per Minute.  Generally refers to your ability to control your units, build more of them, and continually manage your economy and expand it.  Most players will barely break 100, semi-pros hover a little under 200, and the pro level of Starcraft 1 is anywhere from 250-400.  Even if this is calculated through the general clicks and button presses you make, don't make random clicks or spam to raise this stat.  You're only kidding yourself.  We'll elaborate on this in later articles. Macro - Macromanagement skills.  This refers to the beginning of the game and man

News StarCraft II Beta – Patch 17 (version 0.20.0.16036) Bug FixesMany of the following bug fixes were intended for internal testing only, and are now being reverted. 250mm Strike Cannons can no longer deal damage to hidden targets. Barracks build time decreased from 65 to 60 seconds. Bunker build time decreased from 40 to 30 seconds. Canceling morphing Banelings now returns 75% of the cost like other morphing Zerg units. Hellion range reverted from 6 to 5. Reaper build time decreased from 45 to 40 seconds. Zealot build time decreased from 38 to 33 seconds. Still no situation report Patch 17 Link: http://forums.battle.net/thread.html?topicId=23094049316&postId=259662834748&sid=5000#20 Dominion website is at 80% and has unlocked the second lore-recap video “Uncertain Future”.  As well as more art and a new Protoss score call “The New Protoss”. Starcraft II to get 3D support in a patch following release. This comes from an IGN interview with lead producer, Chris Sigaty, who looks an aweful like the guitarist from Metalocalypse and plays guitar for the Lv. 80 Elite Tauren Chieftans. Original article: http://pc.ign.com/articles/110/1102379p2.html Starcraft II Collector’s Edition leaked unboxing footage.  Look legit, and makes me wonder if the game has gone gold.  With only two weeks left until launch we can only assume that it has. Link: http://gamevideos.1up.com/video/id/30322 Strategies: Kyles Stuff: Suddenly Queens! Roaches vs. seige tanks Always hydra Anonymous: 1. Dark templars are the protosses best ground unit. Pull about 8 of em out in mid game and that destroyes armies. 2. Warp prisims are good 4 gettin a few immortals into mineral lines. Make sure that the imortals hit the nexus/hive/Command centre as if u give em like 20-30 sec that nexus is gone. Also once imortals r unloaded make ur prisms do their power field ability and you can use warp gates to warp in units. Preferably dark templar. 3. At start of game put a hide a pylon on the out side of his base so that the warp field can reach up into his base. Later in game you can now bypass his wall and warp armies into his base. 4. It is important that when in a terrens base that you kill his orbital command or any other detector unit so the carnt scan you. 5. 5 Dt's (dark templar) can kill 15+ workers in about 5 sec as they 1 hit kill scvs, drones or probes. Note: For these strategies to work effectively you shall need 5-7 warp gates which means you need a lot of money rolling in. A dark templars cost 125m & 125g each. So try and get sneaky expansions. Alexis: Since you talked about both Ghosts and Dark Templars in your last episode, I thought I'd point out one important feature of the EMP round that you didn't mention is that it reveals cloaked units for a short period of time. Which can come in pretty handy when being harassed by Dark Templars and you don't have enough energy for a scan.- Isadork: Hey I guess I would direct this more toward Kyle. What Build Order do you use for fast expand to naturel? And as always keep on keeping me entertained. Eric: 1. How early is too early to scout? 2. Any tips for defending against a Thor drop? 3. Your opinion on the best 2v2 race-combo and why. 4. Wanna see a dead body?

My apologies for the delay on this week's episode but I have been in Key West for the past week.  I jus recently had access to a computer to edit and upload this.  Enjoy! -Garrett *News Ghosts of the Past The Dominion website has reached 100% and unlocked an absolutely amazing SC2 trailer “Ghosts of the Past”. In it we are shown a lot of footage from the campaigns pre-rendered and real-time cinematics. What we know: There will be a cinema documenting the fall of Sarah Kerrigan. Jim Raynor is experiencing guilt after what happened to Kerrigan. Jim seems like he is also the reluctant hero due to his guilt. The Dominion is very powerful. Jim will lead a revolt against the Dominion. Jim has a pimp-ass marine suit, and a HUGE sniper rifle. There is some fancy blonde dude named Prince Valerian. Valerian is the son of Arcturus Mengsk current emperor of the Dominion. Xeratul likes to speak in riddles,“the answers you seek lie within”. Beta Patch #18 General -The Mac StarCraft II Editor is now available! Bug Fixes - Burrowed Ultralisks now have the correct 500 hit points while burrowed. - Fixed an issue where custom maps utilizing custom loading screens could cause players to lag or be dropped from Battle.net. - Fixed an issue during replays when rewinding could cause the replay to desync. - Fixed an issue with in-game menus causing performance issues. Beta Phase 2 ended July 19th. Many cried. Blizzard is hosting a SC2 launch event at Fry’s Electronics in Fountain Valley, CA Monday night starting at 9pm. Members of the StarCraft II development team will be present to celebrate with the fans. There will be other official Blizzard launches around the globe. For more info visit the official launch site. http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/company/events/starcraft2-fountainvalley.html New Starcraft Community Site: Pre-download Learn the Lore in a hurry Kotaku posted a great article that wraps up everything you would ever need to know about the original Starcraft lore. http://kotaku.com/5591671/learn-the-starcraft-storyline-in-a-hurry *Strategies Back next week *Emails Matthew writes I was playing 2v2 with a friend it was our 4 or 5th game of the night we make our wall we both play terran. Everything seems fine we keep building try a reaper rush yeah great nice could be our 4th win in a row. The two protoss come at us with some zealots and sentries. We think no problem stand there shoot. But it seems we may have over looked the fact that we left 1 space between buildings. Insert swearing here. Will I ever move up in division. I am number 1 in my divisions 21 and 17 so more wins than loses my opponents seem to be always favored against me. Is it some sort of weekly thing? Adam writes Hey guys I thought I'd add to your strat on how to beat old school SC AI. If you are playing 1 V 1 all you have to do is take one drone/SCV/probe whatever your race, then send it to the AI mineral line and attack one of their miners, their entire line of miners chase after it now and just run it around set a few way points for it with CNTRL click you can set up to 7. and then go back and work on your base for a little bit, after a little time doing this you have an army and they do not. solved ;) Noah writes Dear Starcast, I was listening to your latest podcast in which you talk about 3d displays, I am not sure how the Nintendo 3Ds works but 3D on the computer works like this, your moniter must have a 120hz refresh rate because the glasses darken one eye and then the other, this is called active shutter. what happens is the glasses let you see with one eye at a time and the moniter shows that eye its specific image, then it all switches. the reason the moniter must be 120hz is because then each eye is seeing 60hz. Designfire writes Hi Garrett and Kyle, Really loving the show, both the content and banter. Was curious... Since SC2 is nearly out, I think we need to start speculating on the zerg and protoss expansions, you know because us blizz-fans are never sat

Episode 16 *News* The obvious: StarCraft II launches worldwide.   Analysts predict sales of up to 7 million copies by the end of the year.  Generating $350 million in sales. Links: http://games.venturebeat.com/2010/07/23/starcraft-ii-could-generate-350m-in-sales-this-year/ http://www.joystiq.com/2010/07/28/analysts-predict-starcraft-2-sales-in-2010-to-be-out-of-this-wor/ http://www.gamespot.com/news/6271382.html Name Thing Your StarCraft II character name will be the only one you get.  When logging into SC2 we were greeted with this: “Welcome to StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty.  When logging into StarCraft for the first time you will be prompted to create your character.  This is the name you’ll go by on Battle.Net and while playing in all multiplayer games.  You only get on shot to choose your permanent character name.  So make it count!” AKA ButtFuz Reviews come late   This is normal with beefy, large-content games.  Much like with MMO’s, gaming sites like IGN and Gametrailers need more time to make a complete review of the game.  Overall reaction to the game is positive however.  But honestly, it’s a Blizzard game.  No surprise there. Kotaku’s Review: http://kotaku.com/5600857/starcraft-ii-wings-of-liberty-review-upgrade-complete?skyline=true&s=i Gametrailer’s Score: 9.5 Gametrailer’s Review: http://www.gametrailers.com/video/review-hd-starcraft-ii/702433 StarCraft II’s campaign can be finished in 16 hours. Strategies Mar writes: hey guys. Here is a strat that will really make your jaws drop. a proxy hatchery. on a 1v1 map u put all of your drones to work BUT 1. the one that u leave out send him to your appoints base and hide him in a dark corner. then as fast as you  make a hatchery in his base. when you start the proxy work on a pool at your main base. then make zerglings from your main to attack the front and make drones from the proxy for spine's.... with a queens and lost of spines/ zerglings you can win in about 8 mins. if you can talk about this strat on the show I'd love it....i love the show it makes work go by very fast. Grimdore writes: I was listening to your podcast, and one of the writers asked about which race combo works best in 2v2, and you mentioned a double zerg team with ling rush is deadly.  This is very true as well as a reaper rush when your playing protoss.  The thing that saves over all is to build to early cannons, and proxy your base around your economy line with the cannons resting behind your bigger buildings. This prevents the lings easy access to your cannons and supply long enough for your cannons to mame. Thanks, Grimdore Matt asks: What is a good counter against roaches? Roger writes: Hey guys, A lot of the listeners seem to have a wrong opinion about Dark Templars. They are amazing units but don't nearly have the potency that some of the listeners describe in the higher tiers. DKs have the distinct disadvantage of diminishing returns, the more you use them the less likely they are going to be useful later (there are exceptions to this of course since it will make the opponent wary of attacking without detectors and may tie up robotics facilities and starports). Think about how many structures are needed before you can fast rush with DKs, You need a Gate, C-Core,Twilight Council and Dark Shrine, if your opponent attacks with a small diverse force you won't be able to defend. For example I once lost against a force of Marines and Hellions.  However thats not to say that Dks are bad units. They are a scalpel unit, use them to make small surgical cuts in your opponents forces that keep him/her busy enough to strike with your main forces. For example using stalkers to attack from the front while you perform a DK drop with warp prism into mineral lines is a great way to use them. Stalkers are your fastest units so you can always pull out if you dont think you can win, but in the mean time your DKs will decimate a