Loading...
  OR  Zero-K Name:    Password:   
Title: Steel_Blue's CCR macro challenge
Host: USrankAdminSteel_Blue
Game version: Zero-K v1.6.9.0
Engine version: 104.0.1-287-gf7b0fcc
Started: 5 years ago
Duration: 20 minutes
Players: 1
Bots: True
Mission: False
Watch Replay Now
Manual download

Team 1

USrankAdminSteel_Blue
Team 2

CAI (3) <CAI>
CAI (1) <CAI>
CAI (2) <CAI>
Spectators

Show winners



Preview
Filter:    Player:  
sort
There are a lot of newer players since the steam release, and I want to introduce them to the old benchmark for good play: the CCR macro challenge. This dates before the current Circuit AI in the game. Play the game on CCR vs 3 CAIs solo, no terraform, restricting your units to only com, mex solar fusion pylon storage caretaker LotusLLT PicketMT RoverFac mason dart scorcher fencer ripper ravager.

The way to win is by quickly expanding then pushing back the hoard. Pausing can be allowed(but because I think zero-k is multiplayer focused, discouraged). This is a hard challenge, especially real time, and trains good practices of rapid expansion, because not doing so leads to assured failure. mid game you can further boost your economy with some overdrive and reclaim(especially reclaim).

This was a no pause run, I won on my second attempt. I blame rust from not playing CCR macro challenge for over a year, as well as recent pondering about overdrive.
+1 / -0

5 years ago
Actually, i think that Macro-Challenge iis a bit luck dependent. I played this for ages and i still loose about 75% of the games.
Rapid expansion is not possible if 1 of your enemies has fleas or darts. In this case: http://zero-k.info/Battles/Detail/624979 a few knight are just uncounterable with the units you listed. I build Domis, but i was so outecoed already that they couldn´t do anything.
Or did i do another major mistake?
Funny sidenote: when i used to play this often, people always told me that "CAI is too easy". None of them had ever tried this i am certain.
+2 / -0

5 years ago
CCR macro is very much decided in under 10 mins. If your eco is on pace with the AI's total eco(you own half the map) you are on track to win. I can guess that in http://zero-k.info/Battles/Detail/624979 you are focusing too much on micro rather than macro because you build in my opinion too few constructors by around 5-6 mins, I think having 1 or 2 more would be better. idle constructors can be set to reclaim, so having 3 too many constructors isn't the worst thing in the world. a "mistake" i would say is too few radars, at ten mins you have only 1 radar online. this doesn't even cover the sides of your side of the map.

Energy keeps pace with metal, good.

unit composition: you're building wolverines and scorchers. I do not like building wolverines because they have very low damage/DPS and very high inacureacy, they need like 2 mins of setup for the perfect minefield. then you need 2 mins to "move" that mine field. building more decreases that time, but then you have like 1.5K metal in that and it doesn't feel worth it. you do not build rippers, which is a shame because they have had many buffs since a long time ago, mostly to RoF that is like a 33% increase in DPS. I feel the best spam that I can "fire and forget" with is 2:1 ravager ripper. -kills raiders, -can assult/raid with high speeds.

As for luck there is luck with what factory the enemy gets. I feel cloaky is powerful, but manageable. to deal with a knight/reaver ball, keep your army retreating out of range untill you ammass 2X the units you see, then charge right into and through it. reclaim afterwards. A larger threat, IMO, is spiders massing recluse. recluse are kinda fast and it's really hard to gain ground on them considering how long range they are. if you can get in close, they die, but getting in close requires some micro. a stratagy for dealing with recluses is to pincer them which requires getting to both sides or behind the ball, which I could not do in the game against 2 spider facs(I lost to 2 massive recluse balls, I felt that I could not maneuver around them because if I tried I ran into the other recluse ball.)

You did early raiding this game, which killed 2 factories. that's nice, an action like that would allow you to "re-roll" a bad factory match up. But I hope that microing that did not slow your expansion.

Final touch on expansion: a couple llts spattered behind the front lines is good and kills lose raiders in the back. radars can help you kill lose raiders with a pack of like 8 darts.
+0 / -0
5 years ago
whats CAI how do i set this up
+0 / -0
I used to get 2 builders first, then begin to raid. There were some problems, radar was one of them, same goes for too many idle builders. I took wolves because they can stall the AI for some time.
Rippers are not really useful IMO because the CAI-raiders are never clumped up, so most of the time they don´t make cost and tend to die too easy. And no, micro should not slow your expansion, because when executed correctly, your builders should have such long queues that you can micro for some time. What i learned from this challenge was to set those long queues up extremely fast.
About facs: in my expierience, a real problem are hovers, because sometimes, the AI will have 3 or more of them so fast, that they instantly shred everything of you, wich i nomally countered with air, but that is out of question here. Spiders, Amph and most CAI-shieldbots are countered by wolverines very easy.
And another funny sidenote: ROrankSigero can do this without real expansion at the beginning, just by killing everything with raids at the start, THEN expanding. But i guess that´s just above my (and most other) abilities.
+0 / -0

5 years ago
AUrankisaach
to "unlock" CAI, Settings -> Lobby: disable "simplified AI-list".
+0 / -0