Damage and Armor TypesThe old saying in football is that defense wins championships. I don’t know how true that is, but it certainly has it’s merits in Starcraft 2. The big difference is knowing the difference between Attack types and Armor types. In the original Starcraft, the system was very complicated and extremely confusing. For example:
A Terran Vulture had a ground to ground attack that did 20 points of damage. This is more than three times the amount of damage that a Marine could do. So why are they not the weapon of choice against Protoss Dragoons? Why are Marines a better choice? The difference is in the Attack type. The Vulture’s attack type was explosive. That meant that it did full damage to small lightly armored units. Great against money gatherers and Marines/Zealots/Zerglings. That same explosive damage did 75% less to larger armored units. That means that the Vulture only does 5 points of damage to a Dragoon! Well, he actually does 20 points to his shields until they run out then 5 damage to the hit points and uh….never mind, it’s too confusing.
The system has been reworked and is a whole lot easier to understand now. Every unit is classified as having one of three types of armor: Light, Armored, or Building. Obviously, buildings are the only things that get the Building armor type, leaving Light and Armored for the units. Units can also be classified as being either Small, Medium, or Large. Some units get an armor bonus based on their size and power. You can upgrade the Attack and Armor levels up to three times for all of the units in the game.
I know your head is spinning by now, but let’s put it into some easy to understand terms, with our some of our favorite units.
The Terran Ghost is a small unit with Light armor. His starting armor value is 0. His starting attack value is 6. For each upgrade he gets a +1 to his armor or +1 to his attack. The Ghost gets a special bonus of +12 vs Light armored units.
The Protoss Zealot is a small unit with Light armor. His starting armor value is 1. His starting attack value is 8 and he attacks twice. For each upgrade he gets a +1 to his armor or +1 for each attack.
The Zerg Ultralisk is a large unit with Armored armor. His starting armor value is 1. His starting attack value is 20 and he can attack two different units at the same time. For each upgrade he gets a +1 to his armor or +3 for each attack. The Ultralisk gets a special bonus of +5 vs Buildings.
When the Ghost shoots at the Zealot, he will do 17 points of damage. 6 regular damage + 12 vs Light armor bonus - 1 for the Zealots armor value.
When the Zealot attacks the Ghost he does 16 points of damage. (8 for each attack – 0 for the Ghost armor) * 2 attacks.
Let’s say the Zealot has his armor and attack upgrade all three times:
The Ghost shoots the Zealot and does 14 points of damage. 6 regular damage + 12 vs Light armor - 4 for the Zealot armor value.
The Zealot attacks the Ghost and does 22 points of damage. (8 regular damage + 3 damage upgrade - 0 for the Ghost armor value) * 2 attacks.
What about the Ultralisk you ask. The Ultralisk walks up to the fighting Ghost and Zealot. Sensing the larger danger, the Ghost and Zealot attack it together. So:
The Ghost attacks the Ultralisk and does 5 points of damage. 6 regular - 1 for the Ultralisk armor value. There is no bonus because he is not Light armor type.
The Zealot attacks the Ultralisk and does 14 points of damage. (8 regular damage - 1 for the Ultralisk armor value) * 2 attacks.
The Ultralisk attacks the Ghost for 20 points of damage and the Zealot for 19 points of damage. (20 regular - 0 for the Ghost armor value and 20 regular - 1 for the Zealot armor value.) Notice that the Ultralisk does not do 40 to each because it attacks two different units and not two attacks on the same unit like the Zealot.
Whew!
Not to try and scramble your brains any more than I already have, it’s important to remember that units can also have the following modifiers: Fleshy, Mechanical, Robotic, Biological and Hover. These modifiers can have effect another units attacks and spells.
The above mentioned Ghost has a special ability called Snipe that does 50 points of damage, but can only target fleshy and biological units. The ability grants a bonus of +100 vs small units.
Sniping…hmmm. Yes, that reminds me of a puzzle:
A Ghost uses his Snipe attack on the Ultralisk (Biological) and the Zealot (Fleshy). How much damage will he do to each assuming they are without upgrades?
A group of 12 normal Zealots attack a fully upgraded Ultralisk? If they win the encounter, how many are left? Ultralisks have 600 hp and Zealots have 160 total hp.
Can a group of three ghosts kill a single Ultralisk before it kills them? Assume the Ghosts have enough energy to use their Snipe attack only once.
A group of 6 Zealots and 2 Ultralisks are having a race to see who can destroy a pair of buildings first. The buildings have 500 hp each and are next to each other. Who wins the race?
If a group of 20 fully upgraded Ghosts attack a normal Ultralisk, how many shots would it take to kill it and how many Ghosts would be alive afterwards? Assume that their attack rates are all the same so that every time the Ghosts fire the Ultralisk attacks. The Ghosts have no energy for Sniping.
Bonus points if you use a Layton quotes when answering. Also, the first person to get all of these answered correctly gets this:
Poll
Topic: The Starcraft mega thread - Rising from the ashes. (Read 189974 times)
