Mental Strategy

Mental Strategy
(Excuse the Commas in my work! It's part of my style. Agelmar wanted me to admit to this!!)

Title: Thinking Multidimensionally

    This was going to be the next mental strategy that I was originally going to write at Starcraft Millennium before I left but due to the fact that I did leave I never wrote this. =( However, I am going to write it now. The idea of this Mental Strategy is to do something that all of the other mental strategies in their own right are doing. They are giving you different ways to think about different situations with the knowledge that you have of the background of the game. As most Elvis Fanatics used to say "Bring Back The King." The "Mental" King is back!! : )

    Multidimensional thinking involves your thinking at multiple levels. Think about the prefix(geez.) Now when I am considering the game of Starcraft, I generally consider of the hundreds of possibilities of strategy and I generally consider of the hundreds of ways to counter each of those strategies. Now, multidemensional thinking however involves using what you have learned and expanding the knowledge of this to help influence your decisions into a positive manner. In lameman's terms: "If you think Multidimensionally you can learn from your opponent's attacks, your scouting and make more logical decisions to allow for you to have an attempt to win the game of Starcraft." You may not always win a game of Starcraft by using the tactic of Multidimensional thinking because it involves you to take some time to reflect and redirect your attacks and actions to this movement. When you look at this idea, you could be changing your entire game plan, but that's something you need to think about when beginning your strategies. You always need to come up with something that can be easily changed to allow for you to adapt to a different force of attack. This is an important aspect to strategy which in my opinion most people do not understand. Once people understand this key point life could get more interesting and games could become more exciting.(Yeah. Right.)

    Now let us get to the matter of hand. What types of dimensions are we talking about when playing the game of Starcraft? Should we consider all of the options that could occur against us? It depends on the situation. This strategy is meant to give you an insight in some possibilities onto how to handle these situations. Starcraft in my opinion is divided up into several dimensions which make the entire strategy of Starcraft. Of course, I can't keep all of my secret's, secrets can I? So, here are in my opinion the multiple dimensions of Strategy in Starcraft.

Dimension #1: Building Construction/Unit Construction/Upgrades
When you learn something about an opponent, you could write down the units that you were attacked by and start to keep track of all of these different things on a piece of paper. Maybe, you can learn something about their patterns so you'll be prepared the next time for the next attack. However, the first dimension of Starcraft is all based on the buildings that are constructed, all of the units that are built and of course all of the upgrades designed for each of these different units and buildings. Every building, every unit, every upgrade adds another piece of bacon into the B.L.T. In other words, every thing that is constructed will have an effect on what type of game in Starcraft you're going to be playing. If you notice that your opponent attacks you early with 12 zerglings, and continues to push this option you will notice that your opponent wants a quick game of Starcraft. That was just one example of hundreds that could occur. However, when you are ready to consider this dimension of Starcraft in a game, ask yourself the question below:

"What type of Game, is my opponent trying to place this game into?"

There are several types of Starcraft games but a few good examples are as follows:
Rushing Games
Land Domination Games
Air Wars
High Ground Games
Drawn Out Defensive Battles
Counterattack Games
Drop Games
Disconnected Games
Magical Wars
Choking Games
Individual Unit Pushes
(other...)

There are several types of games that could occur. When you think you understand this you should attempt to adapt to cover this. However, if your opponent figures out that you adapted to that one individual strategy, he could change on the spot. So be ready for everything! Attack, do whatever is needed for you to win. Build the proper buildings/Proper Ground Units/ and most importantly the important upgrades.

Dimension #2: RTS Resource Management
Real-Time Strategies(RTS) all use some way to measure resources(or money). In Starcraft we are using Minerals and Gas. The second dimension of the game of Starcraft you need to consider is Resource Management. The idea is that when you are building/constructing/morphing/warping units/buildings into the game, it will cost you sometype of money. You need to maintain your resources in a proper way. I have a method which I have never tried out before but I think it might become beneficial to the usage of the entire Starcraft community. You know, this could even help out in some other RTS's or RPS(Role Playing Strategy), games of the future. Here's how we do it.
Step #1: Take out a piece of paper, and divide it into four sections(any way, you want is acceptable). Label the first section: Action, The Second Section: Income, The Third Section: Expenses, The Fourth Section: Income-Expenses
Step #2: For every action that you do in the game of Starcraft, record under the income, the amount of money that you currently have located in your bank. For my first example, I am going to assume that I am just starting the game, and my first action will be an SCV. Under the column Action, I will write down the word "SCV." Then, I look at the Minerals/Gas I have in my bank, which is 50/0. So I write that down in the second column. An SCV in Starcraft costs 50 minerals, so I'd write down 50 under my expenses. My total would be 0.
Step #3: Continue to log yourself throughout the game. You don't necessarily need to do it at every moment in the game of Starcraft, but remember to keep track of most of the events that occur.

This will allow for you to analyze some different things about your playing style. If you notice that you continue to die using a certain strategy, and using this system you may notice that you spent way too much money on SCV's, or way too much money on bunkers. This would allow for you to use this log as a way to improve your game of Starcraft. Think about trying to use this in some of your games. If needed send in your logs to me at spacedominator@scmillennium.com and we could see, if I can notice something that could help improve your game. Remember this Dimension of Starcraft, it's one of the most important.

Dimension #3: Attack!!!
In all games, in your own special right you need to attack in some way to win. In Sports, you need to attack your opposing team to score a goal, score a basket, score a touchdown whatever. In Starcraft, the only way you can win is if you attack and destroy an opponents base. True, there is always disconnectors but that's another dissapointing fact of life. Always, when considering the appropriate time to attack question yourself using the following questions:

#1: Is this attack going to accomplish something more then me losing units?
#2: Is this attack going to allow for me to learn something new about my opponent?
#3: Which units should I use to attack?
#4: Is this the correct move in this situation?

Question #4, is the most interesting one. One person in a situation might feel that it is appropriate to attack at one point, while another player feels that it is suicidal to do such a thing. Those question aboves are going to vary from person to person which is what helps to make Starcraft what it is today: "A great Strategy Game with a lot of diverse people and strategies." To help demonstrate the effectiveness of your attacks, try doing the same idea as I did above with resources, except with attacks. After each attack write down the number of casuatlies suffered to yourself, and determine the full amount of minerals and write that number down. Then determine how many your opponent lost. Take their value and subtract it to yours. If it is a Positive value, your attack could of had some benefit. If it was a negative value, your attack was an unwise move for that situation. If you notice that most of your attacks are in the negative values, then you need to reconsider your ways of attacking and try something that could become more effective for yourself. Again the same idea goes, email me at spacedominator@scmillennium.com and see if this truly does help you in any way.

Dimension #4: Mental Aspect
This is the dimension of Starcraft, that a LOT of people forget about. It's the aspect of Starcraft that I've tried to introduce throughout my strategy guide. It's important to understand that everything you think about can also add it's own special aspect to game. If your nervous, you might make moves that would not be normal for you to make.(Tournaments). This aspect I'm not going to cover a lot more of, because this entire strategy section is about this.

These are the 4 MOST important dimensions in the game of Starcraft. If your going to become an effective player in Starcraft, think about each of these 4 dimensions carefully as they seem to cover most of the important parts in Starcraft. However, if you think there should be more please email me at spacedominator@scmillennium.com and tell me! I am always happy to add to my strategy guide.(I'll change things too!)

-SpaceDominator(9/29/99)