It is commonly said that lifting to gold is not really worth it, or in more frequent cases than not, that u end up a bit behind. But after recently watching Tasteless do this vs Day9 in game 4 of the showmatch series,
http://www.youtube.com/user/HuskyStarcraft#p/u/7/l_7Hp-44Eq0
I noticed something: The SCV's are idle for 13 full seconds! Surely we can come up with something to salvage this huge waste down the drain.
What if the CC was landed CC for a moment to collect minerals and allow the SCV's to resume mining?
Something like this:
1) CC lifts right away, start moving. SCV's mine the starting location minerals once.
2) CC lands for second to collect those first wave of regular minerals.
3) CC lifts right away, resumes flying towards gold. And SCV's are sent off to grab some gold in their hands
4) When SCV's have gold in their hands they move towards CC.
5) CC temporarily lands to collect minerals once more.
6) CC lifts again, resumes moving, SCV's sent off to collect gold again.
7) by the 2nd wave of gold collecting (or 3rd for some larger distance maps), the CC should be in place at the gold expansion.
Alternatively, just skip steps 1-3 and just start from step 4.
"Nice description, buddy, but what's the point of it" you say?
If u watch the linked video, u can see at 1:04, the SCV's have gold in their hands and are just sitting there. How long are they sitting there? For the about half the distance of travel time of the CC. if they could mine another wave of gold in this period, it would be a significant start, possibly enough to make one wonder "Hmm, is this enough to offset the minerals lost from having flown over instead of staying at the starting?"
Right after the SCV's have gold in their hands, if they were moved towards the CC, and the CC landed just for a second to free up the SCV's hands of gold, then the SCV's could use that time to mine another wave of gold. by the 2nd wave, the CC should be about in place for landing.
Compare the described scenario with what Tastless did (idling the scv's until the CC landed in place). With this, you start off with a full wave of gold minerals deposited already, with a about 2 seconds lost by the CC landing. With idling the scv's and waiting for the CC like in the video, u start off with 0 minerals and 2 seconds saved.
Secondary Component:
I seems pretty likely that landing it once while the SCV's have gold will be worth it. But i'm less sure about this one, and tossing it out to be panned in the tester: The same principle above can be applied once more at the very beginning when the SCV's spawn very close to the blue minerals. There isn't much distance to travel to get the first wave of minerals, so you might as well mine one wave and halt the CC journey for 2 seconds in exchange for 30 minerals to start. After the first wave of regular minerals, it would probably be good to go for gold in the next wave. I'm not sure, it should be tested out. hence "probably". pure conjecture. maybe it is better to mine a second wave of regular minerals.
Summary:
Basically, the entire point of this is that the SCV's are mining the whole time as the CC is flying over. Even if there is some extra travel distance, i propose that the end effect of doing this, is that you are in a better starting position than sending the scv's to gold, and waiting until the CC lands.
http://www.youtube.com/user/HuskyStarcraft#p/u/7/l_7Hp-44Eq0
I noticed something: The SCV's are idle for 13 full seconds! Surely we can come up with something to salvage this huge waste down the drain.
What if the CC was landed CC for a moment to collect minerals and allow the SCV's to resume mining?
Something like this:
1) CC lifts right away, start moving. SCV's mine the starting location minerals once.
2) CC lands for second to collect those first wave of regular minerals.
3) CC lifts right away, resumes flying towards gold. And SCV's are sent off to grab some gold in their hands
4) When SCV's have gold in their hands they move towards CC.
5) CC temporarily lands to collect minerals once more.
6) CC lifts again, resumes moving, SCV's sent off to collect gold again.
7) by the 2nd wave of gold collecting (or 3rd for some larger distance maps), the CC should be in place at the gold expansion.
Alternatively, just skip steps 1-3 and just start from step 4.
"Nice description, buddy, but what's the point of it" you say?
If u watch the linked video, u can see at 1:04, the SCV's have gold in their hands and are just sitting there. How long are they sitting there? For the about half the distance of travel time of the CC. if they could mine another wave of gold in this period, it would be a significant start, possibly enough to make one wonder "Hmm, is this enough to offset the minerals lost from having flown over instead of staying at the starting?"
Right after the SCV's have gold in their hands, if they were moved towards the CC, and the CC landed just for a second to free up the SCV's hands of gold, then the SCV's could use that time to mine another wave of gold. by the 2nd wave, the CC should be about in place for landing.
Compare the described scenario with what Tastless did (idling the scv's until the CC landed in place). With this, you start off with a full wave of gold minerals deposited already, with a about 2 seconds lost by the CC landing. With idling the scv's and waiting for the CC like in the video, u start off with 0 minerals and 2 seconds saved.
Secondary Component:
I seems pretty likely that landing it once while the SCV's have gold will be worth it. But i'm less sure about this one, and tossing it out to be panned in the tester: The same principle above can be applied once more at the very beginning when the SCV's spawn very close to the blue minerals. There isn't much distance to travel to get the first wave of minerals, so you might as well mine one wave and halt the CC journey for 2 seconds in exchange for 30 minerals to start. After the first wave of regular minerals, it would probably be good to go for gold in the next wave. I'm not sure, it should be tested out. hence "probably". pure conjecture. maybe it is better to mine a second wave of regular minerals.
Summary:
Basically, the entire point of this is that the SCV's are mining the whole time as the CC is flying over. Even if there is some extra travel distance, i propose that the end effect of doing this, is that you are in a better starting position than sending the scv's to gold, and waiting until the CC lands.
