coL.qxc

Protoss Upgrade Conspiracy

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coL.qxc
, 01-07-2012 at 10:29 AM (29702 Views)
Omg protoss upgrades so fast with chrono boost wtf I can't keep up this sucks blizz fix the game pls omg wut. He had 3/3 and I was still 0/0 chrono boost so imba. And now cheaper upgrades. Terran can't win without upgrades. And what about zerg. guess I'll just play protoss until blizz fixes it.

Upgrades take 160/190/220 seconds. Chrono boost lasts 20 seconds but removes 30 seconds of production time (50% increased efficiency for 20 seconds) Thus each upgrade can be chrono boosted a maximum of 5/6/7 times (roughly) where each chronoboost reduces the total time by 10 seconds. Add it all up and we can theoretically go from 0/0 to 3/3 3 minutes faster (50+60+70) than the other races.

Wait a second. Three minutes is only slightly longer than the amount of time it takes to get 1/1. Thus if protoss and not protoss begin upgrading at roughly the same time not protoss should be behind by at most about 75% of 3/3.

Energy regenerates 1 point every 2 seconds. So let's say we say 50 mana on each nexus to use when the forges finish.

50-25 + 10 (mana regenerated over course of chrono) = 35
35 -25 + 10 = 20
Thus we get approximately 3 successive chronoboosts before we have to start waiting 50 seconds to make any chrono boosts at all. Three chronoboosts + 50 seconds is just about enough time to finish 1/1. So 1/1 finishes 40 seconds faster. What about 2/2 and 3/3?

190 & 220 each can be chronoboosted roughly 4 times using the nexus's energy as it recovers. Thus at best we're going to have 3/3 120 seconds faster than not protoss. Two minutes is a long time but it's not long in upgrade time. Level 1 takes 160 seconds alone. In addition this is assuming 2 base protoss is using all of their chronoboosts after building the forges on those upgrades and nothing else.

The problem with protoss upgrades is that not-protoss starts running the race late. Not because imba chrono boost gives them huge insurmountable lead.

So why is there a popular sentiment that chrono on forges is too strong and leads to ridiculous upgrade situations?

Conspiracy.

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  1. drewbie's Avatar
    qxc is one of them !
  2. synkronized's Avatar
    I say players are isolating a topic, analyzing its advantages and ignoring the disadvantages, all while over looking the advantages of their own mechanics.

    Qxc said that roughly 7 Chrono boosts can be used on a Forge if one starts using Chrono's with 50 energy on the Nexus. Pretending we're 2 basing it, that's 14 Chronos on 2 Forges. That's 7 Mules respectively if a Terran has 2 Orbitals. Assuming a Terran scans twice during that period you have 6 Mules or 1,620 minerals mined, while the Toss army has a 2 minute window for a +1 upgrade advantage assuming the Terran went for upgrades asap as well.

    That's no small sum of mineral income. Yes, a Toss player may have a Harvester/Income advantage when the Forge finishes but that quickly changes hands once you stop Chrono'ing probes and/or hit the 70'ish worker count.

    In Terran's case once they hit the desired number of harvesters their macro mechanic can still be used to fuel Mules and Scan to bolster econ/intel respectively. Zerg, once done building Drones can shift every Hatch into massing an army. Once Toss hit's the max worker count and desired upgrades, Chrono's get relegated to bolstering army production.

    Chrono-boost and the Protoss tech tree allow a player to hit the late game and timings faster. But that same macro mechanic results in serious diminishing returns after the Protoss has reached that point. While, yes, Chrono boost can help Toss re-max quickly with mass Chronos on production, that's the late game and a pretty inefficient use of Chronos compared to boosting econ or tech. By then Zerg usually have even more Hatcheries and Terran Orbitals still remain relevant for boosting economy or intel.
  3. bigmangriff's Avatar
    I think the main fact is that people tend to forget that the other races have thier own unfair advantages, such as Mule's. People will tend to complain about others, but blow off anything that makes them seem in the wrong. Being a Terran Player myself, I would much rather have the extra minerals and pump out more units.
  4. coL.qxc's Avatar
    zzz

    this isn't an 'imba' blog. Just read the damn thing. It's not saying protoss upgrades are unfair. It's saying that the time difference is negligible in nearly all circumstances and has more to do with build order than anything else