Playing the game
Learn the basics of playing StarCraft II
StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty was designed so that players can learn the basics with ease; you’ll be building bases and commanding armies in no time. But it certainly won’t hurt if you familiarize yourself with some of StarCraft II’s basic gameplay mechanics, especially if you’re new to RTS-games.
The Basics of StarCraft II
Each race has access to unique units; these units fill specific roles on the battlefield. Combining different units to form versatile armies is one path to victory.
The most basic units at your command are your workers. They harvest the resources you need to expand your base and to add more units to your growing army, and your workers also create new buildings. More advanced units become available once your base meets certain requirements, such as having constructed certain buildings or researched certain technologies.
In multiplayer matches, you win the game when you’ve wiped all your enemy’s buildings off the map or if the other players surrender to you.
UI Overview
Minimap
The minimap on the left shows units, structures, terrain, resource deposits, and special buildings.
Information Panel
The information panel in the center displays useful data about the currently selected units or structures, like hit points, armor, and a graphic representation showing its current condition.
Command Panel
The command panel on the right lets you issue commands like move, build, patrol, and attack.
Selecting Units and Buildings
Drag Selection
Click and hold the left mouse button, then drag the mouse to draw a box. Every unit within that box will be selected. Buildings cannot be selected by drag selection.Control Selection
Hold down the Ctrl key and left-click a unit to select all units of the same unit type (e.g., all marines, or all siege tanks) with one click. Double-clicking a unit has the same effect.Shift selection
Shift-clicking a unit will add that unit to your selection. Drag and shift selection can be combined, which allows you to create varied groups quickly.Group selection
You can press Ctrl+1 through 0 to save your current selection of units and assign them to a control group. Pressing 1 through 0, you can quickly recall that selection. Double-pressing the number will center your view of the battlefield on the current group.For example, if you have two strike forces on the field; you could select one of them and assign them to group 1, and the other to group 2. This would allow you to quickly jump back and forth between the two groups without wasting time re-selecting them manually.
Issuing Commands
Right Click
Right-clicking will issue a context-sensitive command to your currently selected units. For example, if you right-click the terrain, your units will attempt to move to where you clicked; right-clicking an enemy will make your units try to attack that enemy.Autocast
Some units have special abilities which can be set to “autocast” by right-clicking the ability’s icon in the command panel. Autocasting means that the unit will use their ability automatically when appropriate. For example, if you can set an SCV’s repair ability to autocast, it will attempt to repair any damaged buildings near it automatically.Command Panel
All available commands for your current selection are shown at the bottom right-hand side of the screen in the command panel. The commands shown here can be issued by left-clicking them. Some commands, like the “move” command, require a target. In that case, left-click the command, then left-click the target.Hotkeys
The most efficient way to issue commands is via hotkeys. If you mouse over the command panel’s icons, you will see that each command is associated with a hotkey. Pressing the hotkey is identical to clicking the control panel, but much faster. Learning the hotkeys is important if you want to play as efficiently as possible.Queuing Commands
Hold down the Shift key to queue up commands. For example, you can use this to quickly order an SCV to build a series of Supply Depots instead of having to re-select the unit and re-order a new Supply Depot each time, or you can queue move orders to make your units follow a specific route across the battlefield.Resources
Supply
Terran
Supply Depot
Terran supply depots provide the logistical backbone for a large army.
Protoss
Pylon
Protoss advanced deployment technologies require pylons to expand operations.
Zerg
Overlord
Zerg swarms cannot grow beyond a certain threshold without the overlords’ ability to telepathically keep units in line.
Scouting and Fog of War
Scouting early on is important, but so is keeping up your scouting efforts as the game progresses. Workers can be effective scouts at the beginning of a game, but they are fragile and easily destroyed. If that happens, the area you were scouting will be covered by the Fog of War again and you won’t be able to see it until you move your units in again.
Raising an Army
Tactical finesse at the front lines is important, but you also need to keep unit production going if you want to gain the upper hand. Thankfully, each race has its own unique methods to push production capabilities to their limits.
Terran
Any building with an attached Reactor add-on gains a second production queue, allowing you to train twice as many units from that building. Remember that you can swap buildings by moving a currently attached building out of the way and landing another production facility in its place.
Zerg
The zerg are blessed with naturally high production rates, but zerg Queens can kick unit production into overdrive with their Spawn Larva ability. Targeting a Hatchery, the Queen causes the structure to spawn additional larvae. This lets you create a large number of units quickly.
Protoss
The protoss can use the Nexus’s Chrono Boost ability to temporarily speed up any structure’s unit train and research rates. Once you open a Warp Gate, you can also instantly warp units into any friendly psionic matrix. This is especially useful if combined with the Phase Prism’s ability to generate a psionic matrix anywhere on the battlefield.
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[Close]Comments (19)
select a building then press CTRL and any number and a little box appears above the lower interface with an image of that building on it, from now on anytime you it that number you will select the building, double tap it and your camera will centre the building on your screen.
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