Star Battle Omega Wiki

Star Battle is a team-oriented custom game variant (UMS) for StarCraft II by Blizzard Entertainment published in the Arcade section of the game.

Credits go to *zedu* for making the map, *Eta (SB 3.1), Greaterninja, Schloss (SB X)* who made changes to it and now the current developers are Graveyard and artmaker Suge (SB O).

A game as Star Battle can be divided in different phases, which one with specific challenges. In the next sections, for each phase, we describe its main characteristics and strategies. The phases are described in chronological order, starting when the game loads up to the point where the game state is more consolidated.

For more advanced guides we encourgage you to join Discord to ask active players for tips and tricks.

*Each of those 11 Ships got a different path to glory on the battlefield Master all of their unique abilities!*

## **What is Star Battle?**

Star Battle is a team-based space combat game fought in Capital ships from the Starcraft II Universe in a top-down perspective. Each multiplayer match offers intense team battles combining deadly individual fights with larger team strategy. Use your ship’s unique abilities and weapons to exploit enemy weakness and control the map by working with your team to obliterate opponents.

> *With the intensity of a shooter and the big picture-thinking of a strategy game, where you can die only once, makes it a unique game. **-It’s about time- , Tychus.***
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> *In 6v6 matches, individual skill in combat alone cannot secure victory. Your team must decide where to focus its efforts; when to advance and retreat. Every match is a war to be won through multiple battles. **-Unity is strength- , Artanis.***
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> *With multiple ships to choose from; with their own unique set of core abilities and a unique Ultimate to be ready to use. Each ship giving you a unique set of choices and options in a given match. Know your ship, learn your environment and adapt your tactics accordingly. **-It ain't over till it's over- , Raynor.***
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> *Staying alive is often more important than taking down an enemy, so choose your battles carefully.. - **Vengeance is mine in the end- , Kerrigan.***
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### **Ship Selection**

Each team of six players selects freely from the eleven ships one specific ship without knowing the enemy team’s ships. A ship can be picked twice by each team (random can make it more). Some competitive players agree that the game can be, sometimes, defined by the picks from start. That is because there are some ships that stand out in the game strategy, especially in competitive play where players have better mechanical skills. The picks are normally made in accordance to a strategy to be executed by the team, such as fighting, picking enemies, pushing lanes, etc. The picks can also be done based on the player’s skills with a specific ship or considering the metagame. The metagame consists of a set knowledge from inside and outside the game that encompass a series of 3 guidelines of which strategies and ships are more likely to succeed during a time period. The choices of which ship you pick at start are key since they can determine the outcome of the game. Moreover, the player should start the construction of a game strategy, planning which are the best actions for the chosen ship. Lastly, it is important to perform some kind of opponent modeling in order to identify the possible strategies and roles to be assumed by the ship.

### **Opening Phase**

The opening phase begins when the match starts and ends when the creeps or minions reach the middle of each lane. This phase consists of two main tasks: buying the opening upgrades and performing role allocation. The act of buying the very first upgrades depends much on the enemy ships you probably will be facing. Nevertheless, the initial upgrades are very tentative, because the player can only guess which ship it will be playing against his lane. If the player has a deep comprehension of the metagame, it can predict which ships it can face in each lane, however this can be just a guess. The role allocation not only consists of assigning a role to each ship, it also consists of making the initial positioning on the game environment. For instance, the strategy defined can propose an inversion of lanes to make the specific Ship face a weaker Ship and, therefore, maximize its chances of winning the combat. The strategy mostly is based on winning the early fight in the opening phase. The main challenges here are the following: a) select the initial set of upgrades to buy; b) allocate a set of 6 Ships to their respective roles; and c) define which lane will be claimed by one or more ships. For accomplishing these, it may be necessary to develop a system that predicts the enemy's strategy and plan a counter strategy that minimizes the chances of losing the game, by defining roles, lanes and upgrades to each ship.

### **Laning Phase**

The Laning Phase starts when the creeps reach the middle of each lane. It consists of mostly staying in the lane and trying to collect the maximum number of resources as possible. These resources come mainly from executing last hits on enemy creep that come to his lane. This is generally known as farming. Although this task seems to be simple, it is not duet of several factors. The player competes in damaging with hits allied creeps, allied ships. Moreover the player should take care to avoid being damaged by the enemies. Some ships, can also hit with certain abilities their own creeps, making it harder to the player to execute the last hit. Besides the resource collection task, the player should worry about the positioning of the ships. Enemies can take advantage of a bad positioning by increasing the inflicted damage or even ganking the player. The ganking action consists of being caught and killed by other Ships that are not currently combating the player. A common practice is to use the Clouds or do Warp tricks to perform effective ganks, taking advantage of the partial information.The Laning Phase normally finishes when a Ship has enough resources to buy important upgrades and abilities. During the laning phase you have many reasoning tasks. Among these are: deciding whether or not to buy new upgrades, when to fight or damage the enemy ship, which positioning is the best, etc. Moreover since there are just three lanes and six Ships, you should be cooperate with other allied players to killing enemies or to perform any other strategy.

### **Mid Game**

The Mid Game is considered the phase in which the strategy takes form after the Laning Phase. Commonly there are three main strategy types found: team fights, pickoff and lane push.The team fight strategy consists of focusing the game in getting strategic advantage through defeating the enemy team in a series of group fights. Team that focus in this strategy commonly have carry and tank Ships. The first is a Ship capable of inflicting heavy damage on the opponents while the second is able of taking a lot of damage. By winning those fights, the whole team can start pushing the lane.Pickoff is the action of selecting a vulnerable or weak ship and trying to kill it. Normally, this strategy focuses on defeating the enemy by picking important ships and kill them to obtain fight advantage through the rest of the game or weakening a main ship in the group. That can grant advantage in team fights or lead the team to gank the enemy Ships one-by-one, opening way to a smooth victory.

### **Ending Phase**

Eventually a teamfight will occur which the opposing team they cannot recover. This is the point where the climax is surpassed and the Endgame begins. The climax of the game as the ‘’moment of realisation: the moment when the outcome of the contest is known, and the uncertainty has been dispelled’’. Within in Star Battle these moments of dismissed uncertainty and looming inevitability often come after a particularly disastrous teamfight; a couple of allied ships getting picked off in a row. At this point uncertainty and inevitability are not important: rather, what is important is that players and spectators alike are provided with closure. It must be clear at this point why the losers lost and the winners won.

## Team Formation

Team succes depends for a major part on a succesful selected combination of Ships. Every ship got their own strengths in one aspect, but weakness in others. As such in order to win a game, it is well-known that players need to not only control their own ship but also need to select a ship that enhances skils and complements weaknesses of each other (*synergy*).

For example, the Ship Arbiter has a high synergy with Colossus (*high shield durable ship*) because the Arbiter can *transfer Shield as his trait,* to the target at the cost of energy. In another example, the Leviathen with the Passive upgrade *Metamorphosis* allows it to upgrade on the battlefield, making him a natural opposition to the Carier who relies more on his trait: *Interceptors* (muttiple small fighters).

Comprehensive understanding of *synergy* and *opposition* relationships between ships enhances player awareness and experience in game. First, it will allow the players to find a strategy that will maximize the chance of winning. Seccond, it improves the prediction of the match progress and final outcomes, which help players in preparing strategies in advance. Lastly, it helps players to discover other Ships that match their personal expertise or preferences.

### **Team Coordination**

In a Star Battle team, coordination is a process of interaction that integrates a collective set of interdependent tasks, actions, and knowledge and allows individuals to realize a collective performance and achieve certain goals. it often result in collaborative behaviors and team cohesion.
A team’s high performance depends on anticipations and expectations about team members’ behaviors, which allow for the emergence of team cognition— how a team as a whole can process information and respond to the environment based on the processed information.
Switching from explicit to implicit coordination is crucial for team cognition: while explicit coordination requires team members to communicate in order to coordinate their activities, implicit coordination allows members to act without the need for overt communication.

*Micro-predicitions* are ganular predictions about what might happen in the near future in the game, as opposed to predicting the outcome of the match itself. Understanding the likeihood of dying in the near future can be vital in determining what tactics a player should use within post-game analysis. The use of a prediction would provide information on why and how players are making mistakes and what tactics they should use individually and as a team.

*... If it comes down to it, we can work together.**- ,*** **Matt Horner.**