With my first game done it was time to reflect on my experience and set myself some goals.
Game 2: vs Peaceful AI
Goal: Learn shortcuts
My challenge this time is not to use the mouse to build anything, relying solely on shortcuts to get the muscle memory started, so without further delay let's get into the game.
I’m going to speak each letter as I press it in hope that it helps memory, so starting with W then A A I queue up 2 Bobs, set my rally point to the luminite and sent the scout to the enemy base, from watching many people scout in SC2 they tend to set multiple waypoints around the base to keep the scout moving and avoid being attacked, so shift right click I do the same.
Back to the base (using the minimap), I add 2 more Bobs and start making a barracks, it seems quicker this time but let’s not count our chickens just yet. The next stage is something I need to work on next game, a build order of some sort, for now though I start a habitat going, I’ll always need them and resources not spent are bad, yes? Assigning a few Bobs to Therium I then queued up their replacements.
When I had enough resources I started on a Biokinetics lab to get those Exos out, then I spotted a new toy, the Mech bay, lets see what that’s all about, besides if I can use a new unit every now and then I’m still learning.
Hedgehogs it is, from memory these are fast hit and run units which fire in bursts between reloading, sounds like fun to me, putting 2 on the queue I went back to checking on everything else, Bobs are fine, just need to get that command post down which should have been done sooner, making sure I am rolling out a mix of Lancers and Exos in case for some freak of nature the AI attacks.
With my army getting to a reasonable size I send them all to the enemy base, making sure to keep building units for defence, the hogs arrived first obviously and a run around sniping the odd Bob when i can, they do get into a rumble with the AI’s troops but falling back with the weakest saved it, at which point the reinforcements arrive. GG
Summary
I am getting faster and managing my resources better but still on the very basic AI so getting overconfident is foolish.
The UI is thoughtful, it probably won’t look like this at launch but getting to know the keybinds for units and buildings is much quicker than finding a builder and then going through your options.
Maybe next time I should send multiple Bobs out to build, get the barracks earlier.