Mental Checklist

houck

United Kingdom102 Posts

August 12 2010 00:41 GMT

Like a good starcraft player I am I always aim to improve and I watch mostly all of day9's dailies. I remember watching the mental checklist video live and it was like 3am so I wasn't all there.

I did decide to go back to it and even though I think i'm a good player. I was like I will try a mental checklist. OH MY GAWD!!! It's like magic.

If you don't know what I'm talking about, go watch it here:

http://day9tv.blip.tv/file/3732340/

or if you prefer youtube:

(it's in like 10 parts on youtube)

After I created my own as I play Zerg. I first started with a basic list.

Money
Food
Larva
Creep

Easy, right. Problem was for me personally it didn't feel right, so like a good troopa I changed it up.

Till I got:

Is My Money High?
(This was great to know if I wasn't macroing good and helpped me to remember to get my gas on my expansions. It also helps me think can I expand now?)

Am I Near Supply Block?
(I rarely get supply block now)

Are my hatchs spawning larva?
(This kept my queens energy very low and I never felt I was running out of larva)

Are creep tumors ready?
(Unlike spread creep or make creep tumors. I already do that automatically, so instead I thought are they ready to create a new one. I now spread creep alot faster)

Can I get away with making drones?
(This one is the golden one. Everytime I thought of this, I check my enemy and could answer it yes or no.)

Can I Tech?
(Easy question and helps me to do things that took me longer to do. I know get upgrades faster and place buildings down tech buildings earlier.)

Is My Money High?
Am I Near Supply Block?
Are my hatchs spawning larva? (I've now changed it to saying "Do my hatchs have larva?")
Are creep tumors ready?
Can I get away with making drones?
Can I Tech?

See the big change? I stopped using just words to remind me and changed them to questions. This is why I think day9 didn't actually give a checklist to all races and told players to make up their own.

You have to find out what works for and if your having problems remembering something just add it to the list. Just start small you don't want 20 things on your list when you can't remember them all.

So to summary this blog, get yourself a checklist made for you. It's helped me a ton and I'm sure it will help you too.

EDIT: Also in big battles and if your tired you might just forget about your checklist and it takes time to doing all the time. I know one thing for sure, if I stopped asking myself these questions, all of a sudden i'm supply blocked with no larva too many drones and about to be crushed by a terran push T_T

love1another

United States1844 Posts

August 12 2010 00:47 GMT

Damn it, you stole my blog name.

unit

United States2621 Posts

August 12 2010 00:48 GMT

for me...ive just had my checklist ingrained in me from BW ^___^ so its all good...my problem is ravens

and ultras

trying to figure out how to crush them into the dirt ^_^ (mainly ravens as i like stalkers)

houck

United Kingdom102 Posts

August 12 2010 02:39 GMT

On August 12 2010 09:48 unit wrote:
for me...ive just had my checklist ingrained in me from BW ^___^ so its all good...my problem is ravens

and ultras

trying to figure out how to crush them into the dirt ^_^ (mainly ravens as i like stalkers)

Shouldn't stalker do well against ravens? Well, I don't know much about TvP xD

EnderSC

62 Posts

September 23 2010 13:38 GMT

Hello.
I've posted this in an other thread about the mental checklist and i figured it couldn't arm anybody to have it here too, as the OP from the other thread is radically different.
I'd like some comments about this.

My mental checklist is inside my hotkey groups:

1 - Command centers >> worker production constant, muleing/scaning.
2 - Production buildings >> Checking minerals and gas, unit production without queuing constant.
3 - Scouting SCV and builder(s) >> scouting, checking supply, following BO.
4, 5, etc - Scout, army, casters... >> Checking minimap, micromanaging.
9, 0 - In theory could be upgrades (but it's too much to handle for me with the keyboard, i dont do that yet.)

Notes:

- Press 1 to 'x' in a cycle and your mental checklist comes naturally. At each group there is something to check. For example 1-1: check (or pass if queueing), 2-2 check/pass, 3-3 check/pass, etc..
- When the cycle is too fast, meaning you don't have money, you can work on micro for a bit and harass.
- By double clicking you cover a big portion your base and map : early game you are able to check mineral line (i.e.mules), simcity, opponent, watch towers, ramp/chokepoint.
- And further in the game, it allows to build workers first, build army second, buildings (supply!) third, minimap fourth, micro fifth...
- When money is too high, you can work on macro without forgetting anything strictly in this order: worker, army, supply, build.
- It keeps money low without queuing and, if you don't have good mid/late game macroplan, it helps improvising strats, depending on the opponents moves.
- If your buildings aren't able to constantly produce units or only marines/hellions are available, it triggers the choices of thinking about upgrades, expand for gas or build static defenses.
- It seems easy in theory but it needs a lot of practice not messing up the groups and updating them while playing, It adds so much apm.

Voila, I hope it helps somebody.
This has brought me from newbie beginner to platinium. I started with group 1 only, then I added 2 and 3 when it felt right, which improved my macro and got me to gold. It makes me get used to keyboard play and learn hotkeys fast. Now i'm getting better with the micro groups (4,5..) and i'm in platinium!

gl hf

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