Build Orders, Marco's and AI

Static M.e.

Hi all,

Ive seen a couple of people mention build orders, Macros and tier 1, tier 2 units.

Could someone explain what they are and how you would use them?

I play on an old laptop and only play against the AI, mostly because the game crashes a lot so I have to save games every 5 minutes or so..

Anyway. I expect the Tier 1 units are the first units you can build? For Terran the default marines? I understand what Marco's are and even build orders but how do you use them, are they scripts you input somehow..?

Cheers

Funky

By macro in SC2 people generally aren't talking about scripts but macromanagement which is basically how well you keep your economy going while keeping the amount of minerals/gas you have banked as low as possible so your unit output is as efficient as possible.

Build orders is the order in which you get your buildings so you are getting to whatever tech/opener you want as quick as possible. When people are talking about build orders you'll often see them say stuff like "12 gate" or "15 hatchery", the number refers to the amount of workers you build the building on.

Yea you're right about the unit tiers, tier 1 would be marines/zealots/zerglings, tier 2 would be units from a factory/lair/stagate/robo facility, etc. Tier 3 would be hive tech units/colossi/carriers/battlecruisers. Not positive if that's exactly right for Terrans since in my mind I'd consider a starport being a tier 3 building but then that'd make fusion core like tier 3.5 or something so I dunno, but that's the general idea.

seraphimvc

if ya are talking about the 'build order' system in the game = the Build Order tab in your score board, which is new in SC2, allow you to see the build order of each player in the game (so you can learn from them).

otherwise, the build order can generally be refered to many different (opening)tactics eg: 6/7 pool(zerg rush tactic), 7 photon(protoss cannon rush), 7 proxy rax(terran go barrack rush) etc.

Overheal

Funky wrote: »

Yea you're right about the unit tiers, tier 1 would be marines/zealots/zerglings, tier 2 would be units from a factory/lair/stagate/robo facility, etc. Tier 3 would be hive tech units/colossi/carriers/battlecruisers. Not positive if that's exactly right for Terrans since in my mind I'd consider a starport being a tier 3 building but then that'd make fusion core like tier 3.5 or something so I dunno, but that's the general idea.

The game doesn't seem strictly defined into T1, T2, etc. But you can see here obviously the further down the tree you go, the more powerful the units become.

Note these are Beta/Pre-Beta tech tree images: Obelisks, Lurkers, etc. do not feature in the game.

DeVore

Yeah, there are some changes for the release, for example hydralisks require a lair now, they are full tier 2 for us Zergies
(I was very confused there for a minute!)

DeV.

seraphimvc

and our beloved lurker is gone i think in HoS they will bring some new unit for us zerg i hope!!

Static M.e.

Thank you all, that is very helpful information.

I somehow had missed the Tech Tree all together which is nice to see

Overheal

On the Battlenet menu in game its in the Help/FAQ section.