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#Post#: 1118--------------------------------------------------
Zerg Army, Income, and Build Options
By: dapperdann11 Date: December 2, 2020, 8:54 pm
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Hi, I've been playing Zerg Hex on and off a couple years. I'm
not very good at the game but, I think I know enough to
recommend a few good changes.
To start here are some charts covering some basic army and
income data for the zerg.
HTML https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1DvjWcNxjS2h1C_yygtX0RettwyqPaDBkar9KMRs0sgg/edit?usp=sharing
Page 1 of the google doc covers the zerg spawners and their
ability to put effective hp into the terran base.
Page 2 gives a few over simplified zerg builds and estimates the
income and army hp/s as the game progresses.
Short Version:
Slowlings are the bread and butter for zerg; they offer the best
income (depending on supply level) and dps of the early zerg
units. Their spawner upgrade doubles the max capacity which
roughly doubles the pressure on the terrans. The unique upgrade
is great at stalling a terran push and even helps a bit on
offense.
Creepers cost slightly more and therefore, slow down the zergs
progression but range is a pretty unique property for zerg. The
spawner upgrade still goes from 2 to 4 capacity which is great.
The unique upgrade is very situational and it is expensive. It
offers nothing on defense and relies on a lack of terran dps to
be useful on offense.
Tanklings are just bad slowlings. They are considerably worse on
income with a higher cost in both minerals and supply. A
significantly longer build time (7s vs 4s) greatly limits them
on defense and any offensive gains in terms of hp are ruined by
a terrible dps. Furthermore, Upgrading the spawner only
increases the maximum amount from 2 to 3 and the unique upgrade
will only partially offset the economic difference between them
and slowlings. The only saving grace is gaining 1 armor with the
first armor upgrade but, 1 armor is a small gain compared to all
the losses.
Strikelings while weak offer the best income per supply and are
the only source of burst damage and speed zerg has until
significant upgrades come in.
Long version:
I’m going to skip the creepers and strikelings as they really
don’t need any significant change. They are unique and are the
right answer for some situations. No spreadsheet analysis will
do either of these units justice.
Slowlings and tanklings on the other hand have significant
overlap in their roles and are ripe for a mathematical
comparison.
Let’s start off listing as many advantages for the tankling as
possible.
1: At a travel range of 30 (about the distance from the first
spines to the terran’s first gas) and zero speed upgrades. The
basic tankling spawner is is ~69% (G48) efficient while the
basic slowling spawner is ~42% (G43) this translates 0.98
Hp/(sec*supply) (N48) verse 0.66 Hp/(sec*supply).
2: Plus 1 armor after the first zerg armor upgrade which is a
necessary upgrade and not extra spending.
3: Faster movement speed of 2.25 vs 2/1.2.
And that is all I can think of.
Slowling Advantage.
1: Income. On page 2 of the google sheet using charts 1 and 2.
By 16 minutes a 30/15 mix of spawners to income for both the
slowlings and tanklings. Will cause a 20% income advantage for
the slowling build. Comparing a more optimal 22.5/22.5 slowling
mix to the 30/15 tankling mix shows a 40% income advantage for
the slowlings. This translates to a 2 minute lead in income
enough to unlock brutas or upgrade every spawner, tier 3 speed,
and still do 3 armor upgrades by the time the tanklings catch
up.
2: A higher DPS 7.14 to 2.5, almost a 3x difference and against
basic 2 armor walls this jumps to a 5x difference 4.29 to 0.83.
3: Upgrading the spawner increases capacity from 2 to 4. This
can double the offensive potential from 0.65 Hp/(sec*supply) at
range 30 to 1.31 Hp/(sec*supply) (See values N43 and N29). This
is considerably better than the basic tankling spawner at 0.98
Hp/(sec*supply) (N48) while still costing 10 less minerals and 1
less supply per spawner.
4: Slowlings have a tactically useful upgrade. Double Hp, minus
40% speed. The maximum Hp/(sec*supply) is 3.125 (Page 1, M12)
which is only matched by fast producing primal roaches at 3.33
Hp/(sec*supply) (M21). The Tankling only has a max of 1.42
Hp/(sec*supply) (M16) and even with plus one armor in a best
case situation against 3 damage units this will only increase
ehp to 2.14 eHp/(sec*supply) (N16).
Obviously, the upgrade has a more limited effect on offense but
it can still net a solid 30% more hp/second at range.
5: Early offense from the zerg is punished by game design.
Rushing the terrans can be too successful. Pushing the terran
back into his base is great. Killing him or making him rage
quit early can turn into a disaster. A 1000+ mineral penalty
when the zerg’s income is only at 1000 minerals per minute is a
devastating loss and can put them far behind a skilled terran.
Therefore, it is generally better to play defensive and push
income to avoid this penalty which is what slowlings excel at.
Conclusion
1: Slowlings are better at income, better at defense, and with
investment can be better at offense than tanklings.
2: Having a unit that is essentially best at everything for the
first 10 minutes makes for stale gameplay that has too little
strategic diversity.
Proposed Solution:
No early building should be the best at more than one thing. The
title of best income, defense, and offense should be held by
three different options.
1: Move the mineral container to T0 (no requirement) and adjust
cost such that it is significantly better than slowlings at
income.
2: Buff tankling damage by 1-3 points and change the unique
upgrade from an economic bonus to an offensive boost that will
solidify tanklings as the superior early game offensive option.
Bonuses to speed, damage, + building damage, and so on.
3: Rework the economic penalty for early leavers to factor in
zerg’s investment into spawners. Something like the penalty is
reduced by 10 minerals for every supply invested into spawners.
The goal here is to differentiate a terran leaving because of
reasons unknown and a terran defeat or rage quitting from a zerg
rush.
These changes are aimed at giving zerg a variety of early builds
to keep the game more dynamic for both sides.
#Post#: 1121--------------------------------------------------
Re: Zerg Army, Income, and Build Options
By: Speed Date: December 3, 2020, 4:15 am
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Tanklings have 1 armor upon researching armor 1.
4s spawn time for 25HP body vs. 7s for 50 HP body. An up front
tankling does not require capacity to have little / no idle
time.
Everyone hates tanklings except me :/ furthermore I feel like
very few / nobody understands tankling at all... it wouldn't be
so horrible if used correctly x) (after armor 1, built at big
spine on a terran with far forward armory WITHOUT upgrading
capacity) The bankling upgrade is pure useless, no denying that
:p
TanklingLivesMatter :D
Edit: should have read to the end, but yeah, from ingame
experience (that's sometimes better than spreadsheets, sometimes
not) tanklings are just beyond misused^^. I built them at times
felt like they were doing ok (at the end of the day they are a
basic unit). Knowing aVehicle, even slowlings are useless vs.
walls (1layer wall with 2 scvs and similar stuff is considered a
"fence", not a wall^^) I still wish packed mass was a toggle
ability (on spawner), would add some good flexibility to that
upgrade.
Some units are worse than others, it's been that way forever,
doesn't need changing x). It's like asking to patching marines,
zealots and zerglings because they are the most used T1 unit
throughout all stages of the game in the majority of games in
favour of the less used units.
Capacity granting 4 units for ling / creeper is still imba and
needs to be nerfed to 3 imo kek (it's almost exclusively used
for all-in).
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