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by ajkjk 3238 days ago
I know that, as a player, the high mechanical limitations of Starcraft are part of why it's such a difficult, high-skill-ceiling game. But.. I've tried to enjoy watching SC2 on Twitch, and while it's kinda fun, it's just so disappointing when a complicated strategic game is thrown away because a player doesn't react fast enough to workers being sniped or a drop being shot down.

I wish the individual units had some automatic behavior -- for example, marines would could run in spread out formations near tanks or banelings; workers would flee from hazards; flying units would avoid turrets unless specifically directed to fly over them. It would require a lot of rebalancing, of course, but it would make the game so much more tactical and strategic and (imo) enjoyable to watch.
2 comments
daemonk 3238 days ago
Yeah I can even imagine a thriving "marketplace" for specialty code that top players would keep secret.

And it doesn't have to just be for micro. For people who are bad at macro, maybe code can be written to consistently maintain X workers at all bases.

The difficult part here would be how to balance the AI-assistance. Is lines of code (or number of characters) a good proxy for complexity? What's the number-of-character to benefit ratio?

I guess that's ultimately determined by the individual player's strengths and weaknesses. If a player sucks at macro, then the macro script is worth the number of characters.

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jbob2000 3238 days ago
You would like Company of Heroes 2, the units require much less micro and the game is a bit slower paced. If your infantry come under fire, they all dive into cover to protect themselves. Defense is a bit more automated (you can set artillery to automatically return fire on enemy artillery once it's exposed) and you have more options for static emplacements to defend critical areas without needing your attention.

I have the same complaints about SC2 as you - way too fast and intense - and I really enjoy Company of Heroes. The whole game is basically set up to get rid of "nags" so you can just play around with the units and have fun.

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