StarCraft/Evolves

Outline
Evolves is a game set on a 64x64 tile set, on the Space Platform terrain pallet. The whole map is visible to all players, free of fog-of-war, usually played in a 2v2 setup. In the center is an inlaid area upon which ground units cannot step into, with 8 beacons:

Evolve is a type of game called "mass attack" meaning a lot of units attack at once.

A player can move their SCV to these beacons, all of which represent strategically important points on the map. When the SCV is moved onto a beacon, all of the units he controls attack-move to the point. This is called "massing"

A player accumulates units as they are placed under his two science vessels, which are invincible. If unit that is spawned under the science vessel comes out onto the invalid area, it is destroyed.

Each player has bunker at each corner of the map. The bunker has five thousand hit points and many units inside of it. The point of the game is to kill all the enemy bunkers. If the bunker is ever destroyed, that player loses.

Here is the twist: the units spawned under one’s science vessels are dictated by your kills and razings score: the higher the score is, the better the units.

Scores

 * 0 - Zerglings
 * 2300 - Zealots
 * 4000 - Firebats
 * 7000 - Hydralisks
 * 16,000 - Goliaths
 * 28,000 - Dragoons
 * 40,000 - Wraiths
 * 70,000 - Hunter Killers
 * 110,000 - Mutalisks
 * 200,000 - Fenix Dragoons
 * 340,000 - Scouts
 * 600,000 - Archons
 * 900,000 - Tom Kazansky
 * 1,100,000 - Battlecruisers
 * 1,600,000 - Marines/Ghosts
 * 2,000,000 - Alan Schezars
 * 3,000,000 - Mojos
 * 4,000,000 - Kukulzas

Not all evolutions are equal some are better or worse then the ones after them. The order of what beats what is as follows. (only shows for units next in line to them such as a hero hydralisk can beat a goon but thats not directly shown)

Zerglings>Zealotsdragoons hunter killers fenixAlan<Mojo=?Kokulzas

Stages
Evolves can be divided into stages where gambits take place, the stages are:

Beggining game 1. Zerglings, Zealots, Firebats 2. Hydralisks, Goliaths, Dragoons

Middle game 1. Wraiths, Hunter Killers 2. Mutalisks, Fenix Dragoons 3. Scouts, Archons, Tom Kazankis

End game 1. Battlecruisers, Marines/Ghosts, Alan Schezars 2. Mojos, Kokulzas

The inequality of units makes for some of the most varied and intriguing game play available for a custom map: the evolution tree is almost exponential. If a player gets an advantage in kills, he can then used that advantage to accumulate even more kill points, because of his superior units. But if you know what you are doing it is not hard to recover from most situations. Evolves among experts is played out in a siries of turns. What one person does forces the enemy to counter it. Battle stratagy is not as important in evolves as in other games like "Simpsons mega carnage" but it can still be usefull especially during air attacks. Evolves stratagy instead centers around feeding, timing and planning ahead. Players can form their stratagy over what "end point" they want their opponents to end up in. Someone may want to plan their stratagy around scouts vs goons (scouts always win) or BCs vs rines/ghost (BCs always win) Usually in loosing positions that are not "end ponts" players can make a comeback. If you are playing against someone a lot better than you it is hard.

A typical Evolves game plays out as a series of battles in which players accumulate a large enough advantage to defeat each other.

There are a number of balance flaws inherent in Evolves which, if known, can be exploited to great effect.

Beginning Game
The beginning of any Evolves game is very important. Players try exploit the ballance flaw in the game to their advantage. They can use a stratgy called "micro" to get ahead. Microing is sending individual units to pick off units of the enemy instead of gaining points.When two good players play they will usually recieve firebats at the same point of time and end up with a tie at the beggining. It is not untill the later game when risks are taken that one person can get ahead.

Some tips for the beggining are: 1. Hotkey your science vessels 2. Get two marines and two ghosts 3. Feed 46 zerglings to have your opponent get zelots (3 groups of 12 and one of 10). 4. Pick off with your zerglings outlieing and unprotected zelots. 5. If you are fed to zelots you can try and micro to firebats. 6. Hydras are a bit better then goliaths and goliaths are a lot better then dragoons. 7. Move your tank back in forth inbetween the battles to deflect hits. 8. Use a ghost in your bunker to lock down the tank and to hit the tank if properly guarded. 9. Attack your enemies tank with ground units to keep it all at once place. 10. Take the flank closest to the edge.

A stratagy that works in some versions (but not in mittis or e v o l v e s) is after you hot-key your science vessels, move them to the mid point between you and your enemy. While the vessels are moving, mass your units to the same mid-point. Many players will, at this point, mass you in the middle, which is generally favorable to you, provided you play the battle well.

Be sure to follow your enemy’s science vessels mercilessly around to ensure that the units they produce are quickly killed, and surround their other stock of units with your units. Using the follow function of your science vessels to theirs can accomplish this quite nicely.

There is a popular exploit in the beginning game of “feeding” - giving a player units to advance their kill score - an enemy to advance them to zealots. While the premise of Evolves is to provide a successively better progression of units as players accumulate kills, there are balance flaws. In a battle between a player with zerglings and a player with zealots, the zerg player will win. Because of this, you can use this technique to trick a player into thinking they have the advantage, making them over confident in massing you. Most of the beggining game tricks only work with "noobs" and it is only later in the game that skill begins to show.

Middle game
The middle game deals mainly in air masses where more skill is required then of ground so even if a player is behind in unit number they can still make a comeback without feeding. Several tips for the mid game are: 1. feed your enemy to goons 2. "dance" around with mutalisks if you have mutalisks and your enemy has goons. 3. If you are fed to goons while your enemy still has mutalisks mass his base immediatly to refeed while killing off a number of his units. 4. Bring your science vessels to follow the battles (new units dont lag) 5. Save goons because they are anti archons (but never take goons over scouts and mutas) 6. Archons deal splash dammage to air so the second you get them place them under "drifting" clumps of enemy units. 7. Protect your air units with archons and goons. Archons "agro" ground units before air units. 8. If you have wraiths and your enemy has archons save up wraiths to make it a bc vs rine match. (wraiths feed more then archons) 9. Newly placed units kill archons fast. 10. When massing the enemy bunker with air temporarilly allie them so that the air drifts back in the corner that your enemy is hiding in.

End game
The end game exploits the BC>Rine>Gol unit strengths. This is the second time in evovles where theres a pattern where it gets worse for two levels before getting better. Since the levels are spaced so far apart if your behind in points, have the same number of units, and not dead yet, you will most likley win. Or if you have more points and can brave it out you win once 5 million is hit. Some tips for end game are: 1. Save your bcs 2. If you have hero ghosts lock down Bcs if you have enough mana 3. send units to feed your enemy then hide in your base 4. if they are force to attack your base with Bcs after they have evolves go to the middle and build BCs, bcs attack the bunker first over newly spawned units. 5. Pack your ghosts/rines tight together. 6. If you get goliaths use them as a meat shield infront of your ghosts/rines. 7. Ghosts/rines die fast to the bunker. 8. Dont be fooled by goliath's air dammage. When lots of them are massing their turrets "lock up" and arnt able to fire. 9. Scouts can be used to sweep the remaining goliaths because of their boosted health. 10. In some evolves maps final level mutalisks are unable to mass.

Evolves clans
There are a couple evolves clans on battle.net, the most notable are on the US EAST portal. They contain the strongest players on b.net some of whome have spent years honing their skills. They are: Clan EXO (channel: Clan xEXO) And Clan Evo (Channel: Clan xevo).

The players Ner0 and Djabanete are also notable players of the US WEST portal. Djabanete is also the author of an Evolves variant, "D J E V O L V E S".