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Damage types and unit sizes-
Units in Starcraft are one of three different
sizes: small, medium and large. The size of a unit is taken into
account when calculating the effects of different classes of damage. This
is why, for example, a Firebat is very
effective against Marines, but has a minimal effect on Siege Tanks. The
damage classes and their
effectiveness in relation to the three unit sizes are as follows:
Normal weapons are equally effective against all types of units.
Concussion/Plasma weapons do 50% damage against Medium units and 25% against
Large units.
Explosive weapons do 50% damage against Small units and 75% against Medium
units.
Protoss shields always take full damage from all attacks. Buildings are considered "Large" units.
Some attacks, such as the Scarab explosion, also do "splash damage", which
means that any units or
buildings within a short radius of the attack point will take a peripheral
amount of damage.
The following table lists each unit's size and damage type:
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| Protoss Units | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Unit
 |
Size
|
Ground
Attack
|
Air Attack
|
| Probe | Small | Normal | - |
| Zealot | Small | Normal | - |
| Dragoon | Large | Explosive | Explosive |
| High Templar | Small | - | - |
| Archon | Large | Normal+ | Normal+ |
| Reaver | Large | Normal+ | - |
| Shuttle | Large | - | - |
| Observer | Small | - | - |
| Scout | Large | Normal | Explosive |
| Carrier | Large | - | - |
| Interceptor | Small | Normal | Normal |
| Arbiter | Large | Explosive | Explosive |
| Dark Archon | Large | - | - |
| Dark Templar | Small | Normal | - |
| Corsair | Medium | - | Explosive+ |
* Weapon does splash damage
to all units
+ Weapon does friendly splash
damage (meaning it will hit allies and enemy units but not your own)
Hot keys and Special Commands
Hot Keys
Every unit command has a hot key, or keyboard shortcut, associated with
it. Holding the cursor over any unit
command button will display the name of the command. Note that one of the
letters appears in Yellow-- this
is the hot key for that command. Using hot keys for special abilities,
attacking, and construction can save a
lot of time.
Selecting Units
Double-Clicking on a unit will select all units of the same type that are
on the screen (up to 12.) You can
also do the same thing by holding down the Control key and left-clicking
on a unit.
Sometimes when you group-select a bunch of different unit types you'll
want to add or remove units from the
group. For example, if you've selected a group of Marines, Ghosts, Firebats,
and SCVs, you might want to
send the combat units off to fight, and send the SCVs off to work. In the
Status Display, hold down Control
and select the Portrait of the unit you want to single out. This will select
a group of those types of units.
Sometimes this is faster and easier than double clicking or control clicking
individual units on the main
screen, especially while they are moving and/or battles are going on.
Hold down Shift and select units you want to be removed from your current
selection group. This is useful
when an unwanted unit gets caught up in your selection such as an SCV,
Dropship and so on.
Hold down Alt and click on one unit from an earlier assigned group to select
all units of that group. The term
"group" doesn't refer to the units designated to a hot key, but to any
units that have been selected as a group
(by any method). If, for example, you select 5 Marines (by dragging a box
around them, holding shift and
clicking on them all, holding CTRL and clicking on one of them, etc), then
select a different unit, and later hold
down ALT and click on one of those Marines again, all five Marines will
be reselected (note that these Marines
have not been designated to a number key). This ALT-click selection works
on the last "group" to which that
unit was a member. This will usually lead units hot keyed to a number to
be reselected when one of those
units is ALT-clicked (since hot keyed units are selected together all the
time).
Whenever you hear a unit transmission, such as "We're under attack!", "Building
complete", etc. press the
Space Bar to center the screen on the location of the last transmission.
This comes in very handy, especially
in the case of a unit being completed.
Control Groups
You can assign a building, building add-on, or a group of up to 12 units
to a single key. To do this, select what
you want to assign, then hold down Control and select a number on the keyboard
between 0-9. Then, when
you want to select what you assigned, simply press the number of the group
that you want. Pressing a group
number twice will center the screen on the group.
Careful use of control groups can be vital to building up your forces during
the heat of battle, and being able to
rapidly respond to unexpected attacks.
By assigning a control group to your Command Center or Nexus you can quickly
center on your town by
pressing the group key twice. It also allows you to quickly select the
building and begin training a new worker.
For example, if you have a Command Center set to group 1, you can press
1 then s to train a new SCV
without pulling your attention away from whatever you're currently doing.
This is even more effective when done
with the Zerg because in addition to the functions of the Terran and Protoss
counterparts, the Hatchery
produces all Zerg units. Assigning it to #1, you would hit 1 then s (to
select all Larvae), then the hot key for
the Zerg unit you want to morph the Larva into. By assigning all of your
Hatcheries to group #s, you can
quickly produce large groups of units. Combined with Rally Points, this
allows a Zerg player to very quickly
build up an attacking or defending force.
Terran players will find that assigning one or more ComSat Stations to
a control group they can quickly detect
cloaked units and scout out enemy bases. It's usually a good idea to assign
the numbers 1-3 to ComSat
stations, so you can instantly perform a Scanner Sweep simply by pressing
1 s.
You can also use control groups to assign groups of specific units that
you want to find and control easily,
such as groups of SCVs you want to devote to repairing, or packs of Carriers,
Battlecruisers, Scouts,
Mutalisks, etc. Use it on spell casters so they will be easier to find.
Assign a number to a group of Defilers
then Burrow them. In the heat of battle you may not remember where you
placed them, but with control #s
you can easily find and control them.
The F2-F4 Keys
You can use F2-F4 to assign a specific location on the map to a key. For
instance you might want to keep an
eye on the entrance to your base. Center the screen on the area you want
to watch, hold down the Shift key,
and press F2, F3 or F4. To center your screen on the location again, simply
press the appropriate key.
Locations vs. Control Groups
Remember you can assign your main buildings at each town, and expansion
towns to 0-9. This allows you to
both center the screen on each town you may have, and also quickly train
a worker or other unit. However,
you can't use control groups to assign a screen location to a place where
there are no buildings, or to enemy
buildings or towns. That's when F2-F4 come in handy. Use F2-F4 for enemy
towns, key ambush spots, and
other worthwhile spots you want to watch but can't keep units at.
Setting Waypoints
Starcraft allows you to guide units along using waypoints. Select the units,
then hold down Shift. While
holding Shift down, select Attack then while continuing to hold down shift,
repeatedly select attack and click
on each point on either the mini-map or main screen you want the units
to travel to. When you are done,
release shift. You can also do the same thing by right-clicking on the
map, but that will issue a Move order
instead. As your forces are traveling to the various waypoints, they will
not stop or respond to any attacks on
them. Move should only be used if you don't think the units will be attacked.
Setting waypoints is very useful when scouting by air. Select an air unit,
then set a waypoint at each
resource spot. The flyer will head off to each resource spot. This is very
good when used with
Observers and cloaked Wraiths, since they can easily evade most enemies.
Use Waypoints to guide your troops through difficult areas.
There is a limit of the number of Waypoints you can use. You will receive
a message indicating when
you have reached that limit.
Queuing Commands
Assigning waypoints and queuing commands are effectively the same thing.
To queue commands, hold down
the shift button, and issue commands to the unit, clicking on the mini-map
or on the main screen. When you
have issued all your commands, release the shift key. Each unit is capable
of queuing several commands at
once singly or when group selected. You can queue most commands such as
left-clicking, right-clicking,
Stop, Attack, Hold Position, Repair, Move, Patrol, and Load/Unload. There
is a limited number of commands
that can be queued-- you will receive a message indicating when you have
reached that Queue limit.
For example:
You can tell a group of Terran SCVs to repair a group of Wraiths by holding
down Shift and either
right-clicking, pressing R, or clicking the Repair Button and targeting
all the damaged Wraiths. If you
attempt to repair a Wraith that is not damaged you will receive a warning
message that the Wraith doesn't
need to be repaired, but it won't cancel out your previous queued repair
commands, so don't worry. The same
can be done with buildings, and the last command can be to return to mining
resources.
Another use is to tell an SCV to build then mine. Hold down Shift and select
the building you want to build
and click where you want it built. Then right-click on either a Mineral
patch or a Refinery. When the SCV is
done building, it will start mining. The same can be done with Protoss
Probes. This cannot be used with Zerg
because the Drones morph into the buildings, causing the loss of the Drone.
Standard Recon
More conservative players can wait until their first attack unit (Zergling,
Marines, or Zealots) before sending out
a recon mission. It is up to you to decide how many you want to send out
scouting, and it depends greatly on
the map size. On large maps, only one Marine or Zealot will take forever
to explore the map and find the
enemy unless you get lucky. Most likely the enemy will be well established
before you find them. So the
larger the map is, the more scouting troops you should probably send.
Keep in mind that if you get attacked by a full force while your troops
are out scouting, it could spell the end
for you. Scouting is a risky maneuver but it can pay off. Sometimes it's
simply a matter of luck. If the enemy
gets lucky and finds you early, it can be over.
After you find the enemy you have to make a decision if you want to attack
or continue to build up. If you see
a definite advantage, attack. Keep in mind though that the enemy may be
able to build up a defense in the
time it takes you to walk your troops across the map.
Watching the Enemy
It is important to make periodic checks on the enemy town to see what units
are available to them, and
possibly what strategy they might be trying for. It's important to become
familiar with the tech tree for all three
species, even if you specialize in playing only one of them. For example,
if you find a Protoss player with four
Gateways, a Nexus, and nothing else except Pylons, you know that they are
probably going for Zealots. If
they have one Gateway, a Cybernetics Core, and a Robotics Facility, expect
a Reaver drop.
Stopping various strategies is often as simple as catching the enemy while
they are attempting them.
Examples of this are enemies building Bunkers/Shield Batteries/Barracks/Gateways
outside your town, trying
to set up defensive formations in high traffic or key locations, or expanding
to new resource nodes. As noted
above, it's also important to determine what units are available to your
opponent, and whether they are
focusing on a one-unit strategy or not.
Terrans
For this task, Terrans have the easiest time. They can use the Scanner
Sweep ability of the ComSat Station,
after building a Barracks and an Academy. This cannot be countered by the
enemy without destroying the
ComSat Station. Terrans can use Marines initially to scout until the ComSat
station is available.
Vultures with the Ion Thrusters upgrade make incredible scouts. Send them
around the resource spots using
waypoints. You can lay Spider Mines at the resource spots to spot and attack
anyone trying to build by them
(keep in mind that Mines are not activated by hovering workers.) Mines
make incredible scouts-- lay them in
well traveled areas, and outside the defensive perimeter of your town to
spot and harass enemy troops. An
upgraded Vulture can also be used to run right through enemy towns-- their
fast speed sometimes allows
them to zip right past defenses.
You can also use cloaked Wraiths to scout the enemy if they do not have
detection yet. Usually a ComSat is
more effective, though, especially if you remember to use it every time
its energy reaches full charge.
Protoss
Protoss have a hard time with spying until they are able to use Observers.
Use Zealots and Probes to scout
the map until Observers are available. Unless you are really doing well,
you won't want to leave your expensive
combat units like Zealots and Dragoons sitting around resource spots. Once
you have enough Probes
gathering Minerals and Gas at your main base, send them out to sit and
wait until you're ready to start on an
expansion town.
Once Observers are available, use them. They make perfect scouts, since
they are small, fast (when
upgraded), and, of course, invisible. Hide them over the resource spots,
send them over the enemy towns,
leave them along land routes between your bases, plant them any place that
you can. Researching their
speed and sight upgrades makes them the best scouts available to any species.
Zerg
The main Zerg scout is the Overlord. Be sure to research the speed and
sight upgrades. Overlords are visible,
vulnerable, and valuable, so a better scout is...
The lowly Zergling! Place a burrowed Zergling at every resource spot. This
will only cost a little of money
because they are so cheap. You will find that the computer Zerg AI uses
this strategy quite well. You can
burrow larger forces as more Minerals are available-- 6-12 Zergling won't
impact your economy much, but can
quickly destroy and enemy attempt to expand. Place Zergling at other high
traffic areas to watch enemy
movement. Often your Zergling will be able to sit there untouched for quite
a while, giving you a free scout on
the map.