StarCraft II: The balance game

Binh Nguyen 11 Oct, 2010 at 2:36pm ET Article published in Gaming

Blizzard Entertainment Lead Designer for StarCraft II, Dustin Browder, posted a rather interesting, yet ultimately unsurprising fact about StarCraft II and the Zerg race. Since the launch of StarCraft II, there has been a certain race that has been well underpowered—a fact known not only in the community, but by Blizzard employees themselves. Dustin Browder posted this stat in his blog:

Protoss are played 38.5% of the time.

Terran are played 38.0% of the time.

Zerg are played 23.5% of the time.

Those are some interesting numbers for sure. The Zerg are definitely played way less than the Terran and Protoss. In addition, there was another series of numbers that caught my attention while I was reading Dustin’s post: these are the number of win percentages on a race-vesus-race basis in League play.

Win % in Diamond (accounting for player skill)

49.6% win rate for Protoss when fighting Terran.
52.8% win rate for Protoss when fighting Zerg.
49.6% win rate for Terran when fighting Zerg.

Win % in Patinum (accounting for player skill)

56.3% win rate for Protoss when fighting Terran.
47.3% win rate for Protoss when fighting Zerg.
44.5% win rate for Terran when fighting Zerg.

Win % in Gold (accounting for player skill)

61.0% win rate for Protoss when fighting Terran.
61.1% win rate for Protoss when fighting Zerg.
49.5% win rate for Terran when fighting Zerg.

Win % in Silver (accounting for player skill)

63.6% win rate for Protoss when fighting Terran.
55.1% win rate for Protoss when fighting Zerg.
45.4% win rate for Terran when fighting Zerg.

Dustin and the rest of Blizzard felt that there are some issues with Protoss vs. Terran in many of the leagues. They are working on solutions to try and balance the game even more. So what do they plan on doing? Here is what they plan on putting in for the next patch:

We’re increasing Roach range. This will allow Roaches to be more effective in large groups, giving the Zerg more options in the mid to end game.

Fungal Growth will now prevent Blink, which will give Zerg a way to stop endlessly Blinking Stalkers which can be very challenging to deal with in large numbers.

The Barracks are going to require a supply Depot, which will impact a lot of early Terran Reaper pushes.

The Reaper speed upgrade will require the Factory, which is meant to weaken a lot of early Terran Reaper attacks that dominate so many matches, especially in team games.

We’re making a number of increases to the health of Zerg buildings, which will make the vulnerable Zerg technology structures more resistant to raids. We don’t expect these hit point changes to have a super significant impact on the game, but the current numbers felt way too low.

I hope some of the changes will help balance the game just a bit. I like using the Zerg in the first game, but I can’t stand using them in this version. I will continue to give the Zerg a shot and maybe I am missing something because I can’t figure out how to make them playable during 1-on-1. Hopefully the changes will help a bit, but I am not sure about the long run. I am one of those players that just love picking “random” in games to throw my opponent off because they don’t know what race I am. But I can’t do that because I am afraid of getting the Zerg. We will see after the patch how much better the Zerg will fare against the Terran and Protoss.

Comments

11 Oct 2010 ~ 2:51pm Bandrik Very nice write-up, Binh. It's interesting to see how the numbers and stats fall here.

Of course, my RTS blinds have been pulled down, hiding Starcraft II from my view. I'm too busy enjoying League of Legends to bother with any other strategy game. Micromanagement, take a hike. =P
11 Oct 2010 ~ 3:13pm Winfrey I play random every game except when I am doing 2v2 with a teammate I know. I actually have a lot of fun with zerg when I spawn as them.

The biggest problem with zerg is that most people aren't excited about playing zerg. There's no super early hard to stop harassing unit like the reaper. There's no sweet tech upgrade that lets you make units almost anywhere on the map like Protoss' warpgates. Zerg's inject larvae mechanic is also much more micro intensive and difficult to manage than M.U.L.Es or Chronoboost. Blizzard just needs to make Zerg more fun to play, I usually have bad timings when I face a zerg on the ladder because there are so few of them. Which is too bad.
11 Oct 2010 ~ 3:35pm shwaip If you're not at a super high level, you're not losing due to racial imbalance. You're losing due to a failure somewhere in your mechanics.

The zerg's macro mechanics (larva inject / creep tumor) are so punishing unless you're getting your injects on time. If you're late on them, you've just wasted energy. You never want to not be injecting larva, especially if you're getting a spare queen to defend air. P can choose to save up chrono for tech - T can just call down 8 mules when they take a new expo/gold. T/P are only punished for forgetting their macro when their energy is at max for a while - Z are punished as soon as it's over 25.

That said, I main Z and it is incredibly frustrating sometimes to see the number of possible T/P openings that put strong early pressure on Z while still maintaining a decent economy. I think that the patch will definitely cut back on some of the possibilities (yay), but I don't necessarily like the depot before rax change. I'm excited about the roach buff. I think it'll be interesting to see how this changes the metagame.
11 Oct 2010 ~ 4:17pm Koreish I am not happy about Terran getting nerfed that much. They got hit pretty hard in the last update and now they're really getting hit. I can't even pump out marines to defend against a Ling or Zealot rush until I make a supply depot.

I'm all for making the game more balanced and giving Zerg a more fighting chance but this will be terrible for Terrans especially in the lower leagues, where cheesy wins are the normal win.
11 Oct 2010 ~ 4:27pm Winfrey If you smooth out your build order and use workers to help defend, early cheese (like a 6-pool) won't be too hard to defend. Not to mention diligent scouting. If you are building a barracks before supply depot to defend against early rushes, you're kinda doing it wrong.
11 Oct 2010 ~ 4:50pm Koreish I typically build them about the same time so I have free space for my marines to start taking up. Ultimately I guess it doesn't really effect me but there are those out there.

I don't know it just seems like Terran is taking all the hits while Protoss is sliding by.
11 Oct 2010 ~ 8:56pm Tim begin nerd rage

Protoss needs nerfs. I'm #2 in my Bronze class as Terran, and Tossers are some of the biggest cheesing cheaters in the game. Protoss needs nerfs.

Observers needs to be eliminated entirely. That is the biggest CHEAT unit in the game, a permanently cloaked tiny little unit that can watch everything I do in my bases. If I see the distortion in the video image I get them, if I don't have Missile Turrets up already. And don't say I should always have Turrets up, there are games against Protoss that don't need them. T and Z have nothing comparable to an observer. And don't say Banshees, they start shooting if they are close to anything, which blows their cover, and their cloak is not permanent.

Void Rays should lose their charge-up when they switch targets. It is BS that they can charge up by shooting a pile of rocks then hit my buildings at full force. T and Z can't do that!

I also hate it when Tossers try to cannon rush my base, although I've gotten pretty good at getting my wall up fast to stop that.

I don't like the ease with which they can warp units in anywhere on the map. Make them walk like I have to!

And I also did not like it that Seige Tanks got their damage nerfed. It's a TANK! In Howitzer (seige) mode especially, it is SUPPOSED to do a lot of damage!!! And why does a TANK... A TANK, only have 160 health points ?!?!?! 300 at least!

And all classes should have something changed so that early rushes are more difficult to accomplish. I don't like 10-15 minute early rush games. I like 30-60 minute 200 supply count wars.

end nerd rage
11 Oct 2010 ~ 9:14pm shwaip counter points:

1) scan / raven (both to scout them and snipe obs)

2) banshees are your void rays

3) bunker rush

4) medivacs to transport and heal. or just kill their proxy pylon

5) you'll have to make 4 tanks to deny a ramp, instead of 1.

6) You're bad.
12 Oct 2010 ~ 1:41am Bandrik I totally didn't get the "QQ" reference on the Zerg-thingy. Urban Dictionary, for the win:

Contrary to popular belief, QQ is not a set of crying eyes. It actually originated with the advent of Warcraft II. On battlenet, you could press ALT+Q+Q to immediately exit the match and program. Thus the term "QQ" was to tell people to just quit because they are unskilled. The term later developed and lost it's origin and is usually mistaken as crying eyes. In contemporary gamer culture, QQ has become the mainstream emoticon for crying eyes, though it is still often used in it's traditional sense.
"Shut up or QQ!"
"Why don't you QQ, noob?"
12 Oct 2010 ~ 1:51am shwaip also, every race has a cannon-esque rush:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1000748/lolrush.SC2Replay

Tim wrote:

begin nerd rage

Protoss needs nerfs. I'm #2 in my Bronze class as Terran, and Tossers are some of the biggest cheesing cheaters in the game. Protoss needs nerfs.

Observers needs to be eliminated entirely. That is the biggest CHEAT unit in the game, a permanently cloaked tiny little unit that can watch everything I do in my bases. If I see the distortion in the video image I get them, if I don't have Missile Turrets up already. And don't say I should always have Turrets up, there are games against Protoss that don't need them. T and Z have nothing comparable to an observer. And don't say Banshees, they start shooting if they are close to anything, which blows their cover, and their cloak is not permanent.

Void Rays should lose their charge-up when they switch targets. It is BS that they can charge up by shooting a pile of rocks then hit my buildings at full force. T and Z can't do that!

I also hate it when Tossers try to cannon rush my base, although I've gotten pretty good at getting my wall up fast to stop that.

I don't like the ease with which they can warp units in anywhere on the map. Make them walk like I have to!

And I also did not like it that Seige Tanks got their damage nerfed. It's a TANK! In Howitzer (seige) mode especially, it is SUPPOSED to do a lot of damage!!! And why does a TANK... A TANK, only have 160 health points ?!?!?! 300 at least!

And all classes should have something changed so that early rushes are more difficult to accomplish. I don't like 10-15 minute early rush games. I like 30-60 minute 200 supply count wars.

end nerd rage
12 Oct 2010 ~ 11:13am Chooch ^ oh man, I am going to try that next time I am playing with my buddies!!
12 Oct 2010 ~ 11:38am Koreish I'm surprised that worked and even more surprising is that he was cool with it.

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12 Oct 2010 ~ 9:03pm Tim Nice zerg rush, never saw that before.

But I would not have quit the game, I would have moved elsewhere if needed, or at the very least I would have lifted off my buildings and forced him to tech to mutas to come kill my buildings. Make the game take a half hour or more!
14 Oct 2010 ~ 9:16am _vRz_ You know, it's funny how zerg used to be the most kick #@% race in the first game and by the second - it's still great, but not as effective when fending off proxy rushes. You can't really wall either - so your best defense is to pump out those zerglings and hope they don't rush you. Wish there was more of an edge to zerg especially in semi-early games.

For those that keep getting proxy rushed - wall your base off. Whether you share a base or what not - you best defense is knowing the map. Know your entrance, and wall it off. Protoss - pylon/gateway/forge and Terran - supply d/barracks/bunker. Stack them close! Or those little zerglings will eat your economy =)

You know what really grinds my gears?

There's so many things that still need nurfing - like the timing it takes to pump out void rays, or the timing to acquire thick beams - cuz once they have thick beams and atleast 5 or 6 void rays, your pretty screwed lol

And gosh darnit - i don't care if it's great unit combination but marine, marauder, medivacs (MMM) needs to be nurfed somehow. The time it takes to stimpack/heal - doesn't compare to the defensive strategy sentry/zealots or stalkers provide (unless you have a crap load of sentries).

Or proxy rushing. Its a quick and easy win (if you know how to do it properly) - but CMON! Fight me like a man! GRRR

That is all. You are all awesome.
4 Nov 2010 ~ 10:43pm Raijing well its nice to see blizz working to make the game even for all sides. i hope it works out for them.
21 Jan 2011 ~ 2:03am jack I play terran and used to think protoss were severely OP, but it's not too difficult to deny protoss players the early game. Often protoss players will try to tech up too quickly (perhaps to dark templars) and you can easily crush them with mass marines.

Now I need to work on my baneling bust defense.