Interestingly enough, I am that guy who studies frame data... In Street Fighter, not Smash, though. I enjoy knowing the exact frames, so I can punish properly. Now, I don't memorize every piece of it, but I do memorize all of the things that pertain to my characters.
Oh interesting. So my question doesn't really apply anymore, but I have a way to rephrase it because I am curious about your thoughts on the subject given that I don't talk to many people who are that in depth.
I'll start with an example where I compare moving units from Brood War, to Starcraft 2:
In Brood War you were restricted to unit control groups of under 12. In SC2, your control groups are much larger(don't know offhand). Lets say we have an army of 15 marines, we want to move these marines from one point on the map to another, each marine following the same path at three distinct points in the game..
In Starcraft 2 There are many ways to do this, but the most efficient is placing all 15 of your units in a single control group. When movement is required, navigate to the place you want to move the army, select your control group, and right click.
In Brood War, using control groups is also the most efficient way, though it is more complex than in SC2. To do this, we will need to group our 15 marines into 2 separate control groups. the exact proportions of the control groups are irrelevant for this example, but the fact that there are 15 marines across 2 control groups is what is important. Now, when I want to move my 15 marines, I navigate to the place I want to move my army, select my first control group, right click, select my second control group, and right click.
In Brood war, the method of moving units is inherently more complex (it requires 5 actions to the 3 required from SC2). Though, I would argue for the sake of the movement alone it adds no depth to the game. it does however raise the mechanical skill ceiling, and mechanical barrier for entry for the game.
to Summarize, For moving 15 marines using control groups in BW/SC2 presents these changes in the fllowing categories
Complexity: Brood War > Starcraft 2
Depth: Brood War = Starcraft 2
Mechanical Skill Ceiling: Brood War > Starcraft 2
Mechanical Barrier for Entry: Brood War > Starcraft 2.
My question is, Which of these two systems do you prefer? (Remember, we are only speaking about the movement of 15 marines. There no other factors or considerations to be made)
What would your pros and cons be about each system?
SIDE NOTE: To those who think I may be trolling with this post, I am completely serious. This is a discussion that goes in within the Starcraft community to this day, and I am specifically asking this person due to the fact they identified as the kind of person who feels complexity in and of itself adds to their enjoyment of the game.
, there's nowhere to go except punish the next defense.
