Technical Difficulties
My graphics card(an Nvidia 9800 GT 512mb) decided to die a slow, painful death. On Friday, it was some weird graphics glitches and distortion while playing SC2. By Saturday, I couldn't run SC2 without having my computer freeze and by Sunday, my monitors simply didn't display anything post-Windows loading screen.
I've rectified this. I bought a new card for half what I paid for my old one that's doubly as good(stupid technology price curve). Things are better than ever in the graphics department now as I can run SC2 on max settings with no slowness at all.
Starcraft II is a big game
I've been exploring the various Custom games that are available in the SC2 map list. These things just suck up your time like a star-powered Hoover. Especially now with the in-game clock, I've noticed that Overrun!, Uberena, and Phantom Mode are sucking up literally hours of my day.
These maps are fun and interesting, but I will be the first to admit that they are easy ways to fall back into bad habits or make new ones due to their skewing of unit value, game speed, and overall strategy. They're great fun, don't get me wrong, but in terms of pursuing my goal they're counter-productive.
So really what I'm trying to say is that I haven't been playing many ladder matches lately and I'm still hovering around Rank 10-12 Silver because of it. Hopefully over the next week or so, I'll get my focus back and get back on the ladder.. horse.. thing.
I have totally been there before, but its ok to take a break from laddering and play a few custom games. It helps give a fresh look on what your doing and can sometimes give you insight on a unit you didn't think about before...
ReplyDeleteI'm definitely learning to appreciate those little-used units. In Uberena, I've had great success with mass-queens or a mixture of Broodlords and Infestors. As long as I can come back to laddering knowing more than I did before, I'll be happy. And yes, custom games are a total stress reliever.
ReplyDeletethe one thing i would love to change about my play is using more infestors. Good use of a technical unit like an infestor or a raven can be really scary. Whenever i see it, it always makes me stop and think wow this guy must be good. one of the best games i ever played was against a terran where i had a few really good infestor plays and the guy told me after the game that those infestors really put him off, made him hesitate and caused him to make a few critical mistakes.
ReplyDeletespitting out infested terrans on someone's mineral line can be absolutely devastating, and a few well placed fungal growths on the deadly terran bioball will really turn the tables no matter how big it is.
@Sean: Yeah, my infestor play really needs work. Maybe that'll figure into one of my next posts, actually. I'm currently finding it hard to micro them well enough so they can survive long enough to be useful.
ReplyDeleteAnd I'm in complete agreement with you about Ravens. Properly used Ravens can be terrifying and that goes for Protoss Sentries too.