You are right about the SDA vids, they are pretty good, but a few are just soso. You point out that a level should be ended with nearly 0 resources, but what is the point of spending money if in the time it takes for you to train the extra troops and for those troops to get to the battle the level is over? Nothing so instead of spending money, just stop making it, send all workers to join the fight just when you've gathered enough money.
I have been watching the SDA vids today and trying my own tactics. Here is a summary of my analysis:
lvl sda est fun notes
t
01 7:22 4:30 7 from start cloak duran, waste their comsat energy
02 4:26 3:00 7 time assumes talks will be fast
03 8:23 5:45 8 for top right, use goliath+dropship pop + troops
04 5:52 5:30 5 impressive sda tactic, 99% waiting though, spell
05 8:20 5:45 7 all you really need is 1 dropship
06 3:27 2:30 8 impressive sda, savings due to n64 dialog skip
07 11:58 7:30 7
08 4:43 4:15 9
sum 54:31 37:30 58
p
01 2:44 2:15 6 good sda
02 12:13 9:00 5 kill all buildings
03 11:01 6:00 8 assume reaver pop works, kill asap once shuttle
04 2:47 2:00 8 good sda
05 7:42 5:00 8 excute much better
06 1:51 1:30 8 impressive sda
07 4:19 1:30 9 !!!! me = 1:49
08 16:39 13:00 6+ run around delay, early quit maybe
sum 59:16 40:15 58
Some levels in PC have long forced dialogs, in the 64 version I think all dialogs are just text screens and you can exit them immediately. Also I remember reading somewhere that in the N64 version it was either the shuttle or the dropship, but one cannot drop units while moving, this is really bad, but hopefully it isn't true, need to test. For many levels the SDA vids use an optimal strategy, but here are some major strat changes:
T3, attack all parts nearly in parallel. The top right appearingly requires brute force, but in actuallity it does not guardian attacks can be evaded by loading the unit in a dropship at the last second.
T5, I was able to beat this level using a single drop ship with 2 tanks in it
P3, I predict a huge savings here, the strategy is rather complicated and probably very very difficult to pull off. I'm not sure how well the reaver pop works in the 64 version, but if works, it might be of some help.
P7, Why build 3 shuttles, when you can just steal one with upgraded speed? At the very beginning attack left side with all forces. Comp will send a shuttle with a dragoon in it. Mind control this and bring it back and pick up the other dark archon. Now head up to the top avoid any damage to shuttle. When over cliff near goal, drop dragoon, move shuttle+goon up, drop dark archon on top and mind control the dude. I got a time of 1:49, and over a minute of that is forced movie like stuff.
P8, while it won't be easy I think it will be possible to put the dudes in the temple almost immediately, then we will have to lead the enemy troops in circles for a very long time. Since this is the last level you could stop the movie early so the temple almost dies.
So after analyzing all the levels I still don't know which would make a better time attack, so either or, it really doesn't matter. One of the main reasons I would want to do the protoss is to show off level 7, but if I go with terran maybe I could try to make a regular speed run of that level and send it to SDA so I don't feel bad about not using it. One of the main reasons against protoss is level 2, it is a classic kill all enemy buildings level that will take a while, but just 1 of these won't make it boring. A major problem with doing the terran is level 4, the SDA person's strategy is very smart, but very boring, and I don't know if it can be beaten even with crazy TT micro. I have tried things like dropping tanks in top right to kill the physics labs instead but, the cpu is very active in its responses in this level, sending lots of troops by dropship to defend.
