StarCraft 2 Co-op: DEATH IS FLEETING! (Mutation Mission)

Frame rate: Optional. This week's Mutation Mission in StarCraft 2 on the Brutal difficulty. It is called "Death is Fleeting". Turns out you can do this one in a very easy and cheesy way.
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StarCraft 2 is a military science fiction real-time strategy video game developed and released by Blizzard Entertainment.
#StarCraft2 #SC2 #RTS
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[@Fuck_whoever_took_my_handle]

"The problem of being faster than light is that you can only live in darkness." - that sonic kid

[@joshuafarrell879]

Old subscriber detected! This subscriber loves watching these types of missions.

[@LowkoTV]

Thanks for watching Joshua!

[@NexusNoxCS]

So the beginning was just normal. The usual Lowko jokes, CtG manifesting at the sound of co-op, but then suddenly... KOREAN SOUNDS! xD

[@RedstoneDefender]

"Imagine spending this much money on a computer and still not getting a good frame-rate in a game from 2010" Laughs in Supreme Commander "how many seconds per in-game tick is it again?"

[@glenmcgillivray4707]

Rts has so many units trying to do so many things at once. And pathfinding usually is the biggest resource hog along with targeting.

[@RedstoneDefender]

​@@glenmcgillivray4707 Um... yes? I don't want to sound rude, but text doesn't send inflection through the internet: Are you trying to say that "An RTS like Starcraft generates more lag than a RPG game like I assume Supreme commander to be"? If you didn't know, Supreme Commander is an RTS as well, so that point would be invalid. But if that's not what you're trying to point out, I'm not really sure what point you're trying to make? In some more detail: Starcraft 1 could run on computers from 1998, potentially with some lag, but given that Starcraft 1 and 2 have the same unit counts, the computation associated from pathfinding and targeting should be about the same for both. Heck, even if we allow Starcraft 2 the benefit of the doubt, and say that the mission allowed the enemies and Stukov to generate far more units than would be normal, so it really has 10 times the amount of units that a Starcraft 1 game would have (which is highly doubtful), then Starcraft 2 should still be faster: CPU's have gotten more than 10 times faster since 1998. Yes, for the past 6 or so years, there's only been marginal improvement, but in 1998 the Pentium was 300Mhz-450Mhz, and looking just at core clock speeds ignores the other huge benefits that you get from architectural improvements(which make 1 clock cycle be worth more than last generation's clock cycle). On top of that, there's the benefit of multicore CPU's. Granted, SC2 doesn't take advantage of that, for some reason (even though at least genuine dual core multithreading would make sense for a 2010 game). All of this also ignores the possibility for improvements in the path-finding algorithm as well - or perhaps better stated, as I doubt they invented a new, general-purpose path-finding algorithm (something important enough that it could win millions of dollars and several prizes in math and science, given how A* is used everywhere these days), changes in the algorithm to make it more applicable to the specific case of navigating the maps as represented within the game engine of starcraft 2). Besides, the 800-1000-ish units moving around a predefined map with a few predefined changeable values shouldn't be nearly as difficult for a modern CPU as the game shows it to be. It's not like minecraft or some procedural thing where the map and terrain are randomly generated and fully malleable, and needs genuine path making skills to navigate an unknown and changing terrain, it just needs to play connect the dots on the predefined grid. While SupCom is a lagfest that can bring supercomputers to their knees, it does have the excuse of being fully simulated (so a random tier one unit can shoot a bullet which is simulated, ends up missing, arch hits a power generator and blows it up, which blows up other stuff, or your artillery can hit enemy aircraft if they fly in the wrong spot, and a million other things that have happened to me) with each player in game able to make up to 1000 units (thereby meaning that by default a 1v1 would generate more CPU lag from associated pathfinding and targeting than a 4v4 starcraft game) while being made in 2003 - right around the time when dual core CPU's were new, so what's multi-threading? (yes, it is the sad truth, I'm not joking about SupCom taking multiple real life seconds to compute in-game ticks sometimes) If you want a game that really has no excuse, then there's Civilization V, especially its netcode. While its computer AI ends up lagging a bunch, (and mathematically, there is no reason it should be nearly as bad as it is, Ive tried playing around with settings, and Ive determined that the AI ends up computing a lot of things it really doesn't need to), there is absolutely NO excuse for having a turn-based board game lag so hard that the other players at your Ethernet LAN party lag out. It's a FKKING TURN-BASED BOARD GAME, THERE IS NOTHING TO UPDATE, WTF IS THIS LAG, NO EXCUSE! I went waaay into detail... But yes, as a CS nerd, being excessively inefficient is one of those things that ticks me off.

[@glenmcgillivray4707]

@@RedstoneDefender I am a Total Annihilation lover. 10 players, 10 k pop caps. The first thing to break is the pathfinding. And when you obliterated the mobile units problems vanished despite thousands of structures or aircraft in the game. Pathfinding is hard. So is targeting (except in StarCraft because Blizzard is lazy) thus I remarked as such. When a game as old as StarCraft 1 and the command an conquer franchise can tank a modern CPU, life gets hard.

[@RedstoneDefender]

@@glenmcgillivray4707 TA is rather famous for artificially limiting the amount of path-finding attempts any single request makes, so it is a common suggestion to edit that on modern hardware which can easily handle that. Otherwise, once unit counts reach a decent number, things get... weird. Well, that and some compatibility mods that help TA work on modern hardware. Personally, I haven't heard anyone I know complain about TA lagging out their computer, at least, not without funky settings and lots of mods involved. Fundamentally, A* is faster than polynomial time, so by default it is okay, not fast, but not great. It can be made a lot faster by specifically making the algorithm work with the predefined maps which have predefined grid points to path along. Well, that, and things like "When the player selects a large group of units and has them move, instead of every unit pathing to the location with its own pathing request, have them all follow one path request". Unfortunately, due to the nature of programming, the more conceptually simple and easier solutions tend to be the more inefficient ones, and because of how algorithm complexity works, what takes one algorithm 10 milliseconds to complete can take another 1024 milliseconds. Don't even start with the insanity that is factorial time. That's when things start to take longer than the age of the universe to compute. It can be rather stupid. And as fun as the games those guys make are, Planetary Annihilation proves rather decisively they aren't good at multithreading or efficiency. I've had the game lag out from trying to make a custom map (well, planet and solar system). Just the planet creator- not running a match, nothing going on, nothing to update, nothing moving. It's not like the insides of the planet need to have anything calculated, or that the planet can dynamically change over time. Its just a simple grid with textures mapped to a sphere, with some unique tiles on the grid for mass, cliffs, trees, whatever. But no, its too difficult. Pure BS. Almost as bad as Civ V and its netcode.

[@glenmcgillivray4707]

@@RedstoneDefender There is now a fan remake of Total Annihalation: we split the EXE into multiple threads, and dedicated a CPU task to pathfinding. And made the level of CPU pathfinding a tweakable value. HIlariously: it works wonders with just a few hundred as the permitted value as the pathfinding only gets prompted when running into a collision, the default only allowed like 12 units at a time to consider a path to their destination. I really should go see what Total Annihalation Universe is up to these days. Having played Supcom, units getting stuck on units shows pathfinding horrors. but at least most wreakage generated by mobiles is pathable (while back in TA any unit that died usually created impassable wrecks you might have to manually destroy to improve pathfinding) And i have seen how laggy PA was and haven't felt an inclination to punish myself with their game design choices. PA took the scale a bit too far out of reasoning, the concept was interesting but i swear the small 3d worlds somehow made everything HARDER to emulate. Nifty but difficult. I haven't tried the Civ series in multiplayer: it sounds evil.

[@kram_productions2770]

birthday just ended. Thank you lowko for giving me something to watch after a long day. best gift!

[@LowkoTV]

Happy birthday Kram!

[@CtG-Games]

@@LowkoTV Happy birthday Lowko!

[@someordinaryperson6222]

Happy birthday 😊

[@fenrir2482]

Happy Bday

[@amiablereaper]

Honestly picking alarak on dead of night is an entire other mutation

[@DarrylGlen]

Under normal circumstances his Devastation Wave owns every cluster of infested...a little less so when death is fleeting!

[@erichuang8534]

@@DarrylGlen well you can use ascendants to sacrifice supplicants. This resets Alarak's death charge and his destruction wave. So he could infinitely use his q and e abilities. I don't think lowko is aware of that lol.

[@kelvsyc8676]

@@erichuang8534 I don't think Lowko has ever perfected the 1QE2C, since back in the day when Lowko had more regular co-op content, his ally was usually the player who played Alarak.

[@eggswithrice]

With ascendants it’s easy, you just level them up through sacrifice and use the aoe abilities of them and alarak combined. Lowko would’ve been so much more effective if he had done that instead of focusing on vanguards.

[@erichuang8534]

@@kelvsyc8676 true that. I haven't even perfected it lol. I can do it just very slow compared to how fast your supposed to do it.But it isn't hard if I practice it.

[@yamilabugattas3895]

Playing with CtG is almost like cheating. He always knows every possible way to win every mutation, it's crazy.

[@aname.whatdidyouexpect1877]

Oh, you didn’t see LilArrin play co-op

[@edgemperor]

LowKo New Video: Death Is Fleeting Me: Looks at clock, time, 2AM. SLEEP IS FLEETING

[@dannyq3619]

Imagine how confused Nova would be, waking from stasis and seeing nothing of her command center just gone.

[@damagamin3716]

Hi lowko, I truly enjoy all of your videos that you make and the replays of incredible StarCraft 2 1v1s, you inspired me to become a better player than I used to be, thanks!

[@skyresonance3071]

Lowko: I'm gonna stay at the base during daytime. Also Lowko: Aight Im'ma head out.

[@sebestyenvarga1821]

2:45 "Alarak is wearing a mask, thats very important!" ALARAK DOESNT EVEN HAVE A MOUTH to cover with a mask!

[@thecommentguy9380]

Alarak is taking absolutely no chances

[@wendellstamps]

Terrazine>Lysol

[@darrensim295]

And yet he still is responsible enough to do it

[@eb5671]

Darren Sim imagine being scared of a 99% survival rate

[@starlord360xy24]

Finally! Lowko knows how I feel when plsying on the lowest settings and having 3fps on my laptop :D

[@timchambers7068]

Thank you for all of the content Lowko!! Fantastic

[@randomdude7052]

When I saw it was on dead of night I was like DO NOT ALLOW THEM TO RESSURECT STANKS LOWKO, OTHERWISE THEY’LL CRUSH YOU

[@drunkendevil6960]

You love the Void Reanimators Lowko.

[@elcanaldelargan8575]

Swann in the double value upgrade version is amazing for this one, I played it, and I defended the base alone while my mate got out there with a lvl 4 Tychus, and we finished it in around 25 minutes or so, once I finished all the defenses and created some (very expensive vespene gas) units.

[@leowei771]

Wait, how? Are the turrets value with his prestige that good or only because it's DoN? Did you use the flame turrets or the blaster billy?

[@elcanaldelargan8575]

@@leowei771 It's good with that prestige because of DoN. I used both turrets, first line in entrances made by flame turrets, second line in entrances and high gound with blaster billies and anti air turrets, and several siege tanks in third line and high ground to help with anything else. For the guys that resurrect people, a few science vessels, and the Laser drill to kill them. When I finished all the defenses, I created a ton of hellbats and let them roam out there until we finished all (my mate had already cleaned most of the map during the days anyway, so...)

[@jihoonkim9766]

22:57 Actually, higher end CPUs tend to have higher single core clock speed/performance as well (assuming they are in the same "category")! It's because they are generally binned better, which means they can achieve higher clock speed with less power. However, i9-7900X (which I presume is what you're using currently) does have lower single core clock speed than say i7-7700K, because it was designed for productivity where more cores benefit you far more than gaming so trading cores for frequency makes sense in this case. But in the same category, so for example, between i7-7700K and i3-7350K, the 7700K does have higher single core clock speed and more cores.

[@1pqlamz466]

Alarak P3 death fleet prestige is the true way of taking down this mutation.

[@lin837pr2]

Love you videos seeing you for almost 5 years just some months and 5 years witg you keep up!!!!!

[@joshuafarrell879]

You should host the match scarlett and neeb played recently, that Winter hosted a replay commentary on.

[@balazsfenyes3880]

Alarak is so caring, he wears a mask on his non-existing mouth.

[@hidden105]

Sweet you're doing co-op again

[@khoado9512]

That one time when lowko pushed a Kaboomer into CTG's mineral line. I felt that.

[@ethanlocke3604]

Imagine the lag playing on this mission with Stukov going mass racks

[@Spartsou]

Loved this, lol!

[@KirbyTheKirb]

13:10 lmao lowko you pushed the big banelings right into ctg´s mineral line using Alarak.

[@jonsku6662]

I remember doing the campaign mission one on brutal with that exact strategy.. well, almost, had to make marines to do the job when day came...

[@ridley2734]

Tychus with Blaze and Flame Spreading should be fun in this mode :o

[@SydusIsHere]

so mr lowko, p3 Alarak has the true death fleet, i was able to defend this mission myself for 4 nights with the death fleet, but i didnt play with a han&horner so this just informed me of the way to beat it!

[@randomdude7052]

Lowko, If you can get maxed prestige for alarak, you can make a maxed out skytoss ball :)

[@randomdude7052]

Also, Level 1 Prestige is Really good as well, every time a supplicant dies or gets sacrificed, a nearby mechanical unit gets +10% attack speed and attack damage, it stacks up to 10 times on a single mech

[@ahung11hk]

The mothership bug with warpgate is there since the prestige system. Since Destroyers are warped in in Alarak p3, I believe the mothership is coded as a warpgate, creating hotkey conflicts.

[@Draemn]

The weird thing about some of these maps is you'll lag even worse when your allies computer sucks... so make sure that also your teammate is turning down their graphics settings. Congrats to CtG on being able to carry you ;)

[@devo4ka_soso4ka]

Mothership is supposed to be on W hotkey on 3rd prestige talent, for easy warp of void rays around it, but since the day blizzard introduced prestige talents it also became on W hotkey for every other prestige including 0, which is nuts because it cant even warp anything unless you are on 3rd talent, and it definitely prevents you from warping units into battle if you dont expect it. I think its a bug but it doesnt look like blizzard care about it, at all.

[@jonathanlee8072]

Anyone else notice that Alarak has robotic arms and legs? They look like they're covered in armor but some joints look more like hinges than anything else.

[@vinscorner]

Its nice to know lowko is playing with a filipino like myself :)

[@kbsltd11]

Lol "I switched to Korean,.. figured it was what was missing in my gameplay"

[@craysheet3034]

vampires behind me

[@davidj135]

The mothership takes over your warp gate key because on the 3rd prestige it becomes your primary warp gate, allowing you to make destroyers. Don't know why they did it that way instead of just treating it like H&H assault galleons

[@danteprokrustes4795]

I had one frame per secound i finished it with karax and vorazoon chrono boost and time stop were great

[@figueroaaranivaalvaro847]

EZ mutation with Tychus, his Blaze can clean a lane so easy, while anothers get other lane.

[@attractivegd9531]

CtG showing his over 9K IQ on game 3, fantastic lol. I did it with Swann P1 + Vorazun P3, but Han & Horner or Mengsk in the place of Vorazun could have done it too. Also you can cheese with Abathur's Vipers (check sc2coop's YT for that).

[@WillingFire]

I really thought you were going for mass destroyers with i guess second prestige but i realized that's not the case

[@Inzeost]

I didn't realize starcraft 64 looked this good.

[@LordxJoe]

Are we just going to ignore the amazing Michael Jackson impression?

[@danteprokrustes4795]

Alaraks structures on lowest looks badass anyway

[@felipeantonio1304]

You should be able to use the mutation mission commanders in normal multiplayer matches I bet some commanders would soo broken under the control of players like Raynor or clem

[@kamikazegargoyle]

mothership is hotkey y (warp gate) because they reworked the prestige it can warp in destroyers. but programmed it weirdly. and for some reason the programming bled thru to the base commander

[@turtlememes2334]

Lowko: 6 framerate? wow! Me playing arcade: first time?

[@kelvsyc8676]

The problem with the TL co-op guide is that they are not actively being maintained, and in the prestige era they may give you less than optimal advice, especially as it comes to how to properly use prestiges (very telling since they still don't have a Mengsk guide at all). It's probably better to use the aommaster guides as a resource, since those are up-to-date. Granted, in their defense, if and when the TL guides are up-to-date, they are _very_ good, since they are authored by some of the best co-op speed runners in the game, and they will give you the inside track on how to clear maps solo while playing to what your ally can offer you.

[@Kolt461]

Blizzard rts games has this issue in general, Vanilla WC3 (Although a bit higher threshold before lagging), Reforged, SC2 always lags like this when there are many units. I dont know what they are doing about it but its quite laggy compared to other RTS games.

[@busterken5024]

There was no lag for me several times on the brutation high settings but now I'm getting bad frames since seeing this video blizzard musta changed something

[@52flyingbicycles]

Karax would be good here. I prefer Templar Apparant with 24/7 carriers but the building prestige would be great as well

[@rozmarinideas5340]

Wouldn't Alarak p3 be really good for this, with Mothership annihilation beam?

[@MeinhardSRohr]

Corona virus 🦠 in the background 😂

[@thedarkarchon2151]

plot twist: Blizzard is behind the virus

[@anon_moose]

Alarak sounds pretty cool in Korean. His voice reminds me of Abathur.

[@christianschultz9715]

Funny enough, i made this mission on hard (to test it out) as han and horner with a random alarak ally

[@mEtil5656]

Why did you use all army instead of Unit groups?

[@Stepphano]

When Lowko said the lowest graphics look bad I was like. Yeah I can only play on lowest :D

[@dorante997]

Should have gone P3 Alarak for maximum death fleet xD

[@DrTarte]

Low reminds me of iPad graphics for xcom

[@davidkim5462]

You don't really have to cheese a mutation like this. I got first try with a Zeratul ally as a Karax. It was great, reviver snipes with orbital strike and great defense with tesseracts and cannons.

[@xJuiCYxxJaYx]

i dont want to lose any units,proceeds to allow alarak to die as he consumes his army ....

[@rondeguzman4097]

Hey Lowko, what's your thought on Dreamhaven (Blizzard's "Gemini Man") ? Are you excited to know on what they're working on? 😁

[@samsquanch197]

Oh man my favorite map, but why Alarak?

[@kyungielee4410]

Yeah internet connection in Manila, Philippines is such a crap thats why he got 300+ ping

[@skyler.mclane]

Lowko you should try playing spore!

[@davidkim5462]

Loving the Korean voices, better for me since I'm korean lmao

[@reallyhightemplar4013]

The easiest strategy for this one is using a commander that has good air. The Kalai Smith guy starting off with sealots and the special sentries and go ass void ray and carrier asap

[@Morpheus6910r]

i just made it with stukov and a random guy with a karax lvl 12 on brutal , this one don't seem too hard ;)

[@AwesomeAmateur]

Lowko throwing Kaboomers into allied base ... That's a facepalm moment right there.

[@gkgkgkgk4155]

우연찮게 봤는데 음성이 한국어네요 ㅋㅋ 즐겁게 잘 보겠습니다

[@baumanmarketinggaming]

Well, Alarak is definitely not the best for defending, except perhaps P3. Raynor/Nova cheese is the safest way, if you wanna see the whole game done that way, check my or CtG's channel! I, however, am not a big fan of that cheese, so if you wanna do it properly & clean the map (including bonus), I found Swann/Kerrigan combination to be the best with both attacking & defending. You can check that out on my channel too!

[@aaroncheng3927]

isn't Alarak hero unit? the can stun him? the whole game, we see lowko panicking. XDD

[@Lark88]

I haven't watched lowko in a while. Did he work on any co-op prestige levels?

[@DarrylGlen]

No, he really just does these mutation videos.

[@kelvsyc8676]

Lowko has been slowly prestiging some commanders (on stream), as you can see from early in the video, but I don't think he is in a position where he is able to take advantage of prestiged commanders. It's also telling that Lowko isn't doing a Cradle of Karax or Cradle of Artanis power-levelling so he could use the best possible prestige option for each commander. Then again, he does openly admit to not knowing what some of the prestiges actually are.

[@InfinityJack]

fun

[@chickendrawsdogs3343]

I just barely pulled through this with Swan and a H&H partner.

[@zsushi3316]

I beat it with Zagara and vorazun it's pretty ez tho.

[@rikwisselink-bijker]

(commenting after 30 seconds) Sounds like it is going to be a Blaze... (ok, I know 'Blaze' only sounds a little bit like 'blast', but I'm not a dad, so my dad jokes can sometimes use some work)

[@SigFrid1985]

What is the benefit of playing with the Mutation instead of the usual Missions??

[@o5-9dea39]

As long as you keep hearing Korean the better you get at game

[@zachariastsampasidis8880]

Hey lowko. Can you cast a platinum-diamond level game where terran goes Banshee all in? Is such a build possible? I haven't seen a viable one since very early Legacy of the void

[@eintha3883]

Haven't seen plat or diamonds terrans go for it, especially because it's easy to counter and even scout it. One or 2 banshees might be fine as an opener, but nothing more than that

[@zachariastsampasidis8880]

@@eintha3883if scouted. What's the latest an opponent can realistically scout a Banshee all in and still have reasonable window of survival?

[@eintha3883]

@@zachariastsampasidis8880 usually the first banshee should be around 4 minutes, as a toss it opened robo you should have sent an observer on terrans base, meaning you can drop some shield batteries and stakers. as terran with the reaper you should have an early scout (around 3 minutes, which is like a 2nd round after confirming first it's a 111 opener). If going with the safe build you should have a raven and some Marines to repel it. As zerg you go with the overlord scout, just make some spores as late as possible and use the queens

[@eintha3883]

At the end, you mostly rely on the first scoutings and your ability to read the opponent. You have some 1-2 minutes margin to create defensive structures (which are basically key for that opener) if that build is executed tightly, maybe even more if the oponent delays it for some reason

[@zachariastsampasidis8880]

@@eintha3883 We are talking 2 extractors 2 star ports or 1 extractor?

[@denyssereda473]

Watch Lowko on twitch.

[@DENIS_Biomech]

*Turrets go:* Pew pew pew *Framerate goes:* 1 fps

[@ffjjj1848]

Where the ascendants at? Just spam supplicants afterwards

[@guilhermefeitoza6803]

Whys Lowko building everything but Ascendants?

[@kelvsyc8676]

I have a feeling that DoN's reputation as not being too friendly to Ascendants may be a factor. Although Ascendants are better for this mutation to clear out large swaths of infested, for regular DoN robo-Alarak builds are kind of preferred on DoN due to them being better at structures. Still, kind of disappointed that Lowko wasn't using P3 so that he could actually use the Death Fleet (just like CtG had done for his Alarak video) at full power. Either that, or Lowko was slapping rocks. He is rusty enough at co-op that he could be doing that.

[@f1r3-y_l1on2]

The question you've gotta ask yourself Lowko is... Does Serral play with his game set to Korean?

[@brianlance8263]

I see void reanimators and I am like F*** this shit I'm out.

[@aditghifari5039]

Morales park

[@hixym]

the reanimators are fuckin up the frame rates... u must kill em xD

[@johannesroschat8254]

Is he playing Star craft 1 on ultra settings?

[@lemonaj4408]

CtG had ping of 300 something... i am from Europe and my ping is sometimes like 3000 something....

[@punkya8389]

lowko manila is from philipines i am philipino

[@crushlp7108]

My Laptop get 2 FPS when i play Masse zerglings with zagara (650€)

[@rozmarinideas5340]

Shouldn't Han and Horner be Horner and Horner, since they're married? I'd love if there was future stuff with them.

[@dhavalgusani]

How did you get to level 165????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@Cylindryk]

I think there is some problem with your language in-game. It sounded... Korean?

[@joshuafarrell879]

Indeed. He activated it, thinking it would help him play better.

[@BladeWinters]

Lowko Hit the skip button towards the end

[@sunRay04]

lol, everyone is lvl165 and keragan is just ..... 2

[@TheKorberus]

Wombat

[@aredub1847]

We need a mutation that takes you HOURS to beat. One and done is boring. We want you to suffer. Add void portals and propagators to this set.

[@ancalagonsc2192]

You might want to have a look at next week mutation

[@aredub1847]

@@ancalagonsc2192 Where?

[@CtG-Games]

​@@ancalagonsc2192 We'll run Zagara/HH on that one. I don't think that would take hours.