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I was considering writing this as a Strategy forum post but it's all probably been covered in several threads before, plus this is a story I wanted to tell to members of the TL community hoping to improve.
After spending ages losing many, many games as Terran, wondering why the hell I had lost so much to Silver and even Bronze League players (Yes, I am seriously this close to being demoted from Gold to Bronze because of how much of a slump I'm in), As somebody who played Zerg for ages and got fed up of losing constantly to certain matchups like ZvZ and ZvP, I spent ages looking for an answer. I kept telling myself that I executed things perfectly, that constant SCV production wasn't hard, and that the problem was balance and not actually my own play.
Until I played a game against somebody who had heard my rants and offered a game. Predictably, I lost very horribly in the fourteenth minute as I got swarmed with double my supply worth of speedlings and speedbanes.
My opponent, realising I was angry checked my game for me, and pointed out a very obvious flaw with my play that I had overlooked out of pride.
In short, my Command Centres were only producing SCVs around 75 - 80% of the time and although I kept my money low, my production wasn't constant from 3 barracks and 1 factory, and this was probably the reason why my reactor hellion expand into 3 tank push failed so disgracefully.
Worse, while I didn't produce SCVs during engagements, it turned out I missed out on a shittonne of SCV production while I was actually safe from attack. And I had not produced my first Siege Tank until 30 seconds after the Tech Lab finished on my factory, even though I had the money to.
It came as a wake up call. I really had to just straight up shut the fuck up and improve my macro.
I now realise that my worry shouldn't have been "This build sucks vs Protoss/Zerg/Terran because of X because I lost to X so much in the last few games." It should have been "Am I making stuff? Am I making stuff? Am I making stuff?"
Anyway, I wrote this blog for 2 reasons:
1. I want to ask. How can I hammer down the basic mechanics of the Terran race solidly in my brain to the point where I won't even have to consciously think about SCV production, avoiding supply blockage and producing units out of everything I got every 2 seconds? I want to be Diamond League potential at least but I don't think I could be a player of that quality until I do this at the very minimum.
2. If you lose badly, even if you're mid league like I am. CHECK YOUR REPLAYS FOR MECHANICAL MISTAKES SUCH AS INFREQUENT PRODUCTION, SUPPLY BLOCKAGES ETC. Don't do what I did and act like bad macro is a stain upon your pride.
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1. Follow rule #2.
2. Follow rule #1.
Really, the only way to get better is dissect your game play. Do you watch Day[9]? There's a TON of good information on his 'newbie' tuesdays even though you're not a 'newbie'. Put all your CCs on a hotkey and put all your production facilities on hotkeys and go back and forth between the two constantly. Make it a habit to check your CC and production facilities at the start of an engagement. Then check them again after the engagement. Put a sticky note on the top, both sides, and bottom of your monitor that says 'BUILD SCV, BUILD MARINE' or something like that to be a visual cue. The more you do it, the better you'll get at your timings so you don't back up your production facilities and can make the most of what you need in that moment.
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On November 16 2011 11:46 SleepTech wrote:
1. Follow rule #2.
2. Follow rule #1.
Really, the only way to get better is dissect your game play. Do you watch Day[9]? There's a TON of good information on his 'newbie' tuesdays even though you're not a 'newbie'. Put all your CCs on a hotkey and put all your production facilities on hotkeys and go back and forth between the two constantly. Make it a habit to check your CC and production facilities at the start of an engagement. Then check them again after the engagement. Put a sticky note on the top, both sides, and bottom of your monitor that says 'BUILD SCV, BUILD MARINE' or something like that to be a visual cue. The more you do it, the better you'll get at your timings so you don't back up your production facilities and can make the most of what you need in that moment.
Good advice, but I want to go further than just "Make it a habit."
I want to literally hard-wire this bloody habit into my head.
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You basically answered your own question.
hammer down the basic mechanics of the Terran race solidly in my brain to the point where I won't even have to consciously think about SCV production
You can even play matches where all you do is macro/keep scv production and not care about micro, map awareness, etc. Eventually after playing games like these you'll get used to making scvs, and your body will know the timing so you can find moments to micro, etc.
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Do it one thing at a time. Don't say "macro better macro better macro better"
First fix your scvs, then fix your supply blocks, then fix your que'ing, then fix your etc. etc. etc.
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On November 16 2011 12:12 CharlieBrownsc wrote:
Do it one thing at a time. Don't say "macro better macro better macro better"
First fix your scvs, then fix your supply blocks, then fix your que'ing, then fix your etc. etc. etc.
Good point, but let's say I have a shittonne of flaws, how do I prioritise what ones are most severe and are in the biggest need of fixing?
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Tap your control groups like a maniac, don't let that SCV, Marine, or Tank queue get empty (queuing isn't a crime unless you are pro), tap your control groups some more, press s, a, whatever else you are making, some more.
But first priority is definitely keeping up making SCVs (and dropping Mules unless you need to save scans) early to mid game.
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Regarding the SCV production, just listen to everything said here + your SCVs saying "SCV READY!". It might help 
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On November 16 2011 11:36 Clbull wrote:
1. I want to ask. How can I hammer down the basic mechanics of the Terran race solidly in my brain to the point where I won't even have to consciously think about SCV production, avoiding supply blockage and producing units out of everything I got every 2 seconds? I want to be Diamond League potential at least but I don't think I could be a player of that quality until I do this at the very minimum.
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You know theres a production que right? You can just leave 5 scvs in the que at the command center and they will all produce non stop without a break. Same for factory/barracks lol
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On November 16 2011 14:07 th2pun1sh3r wrote:Show nested quote +On November 16 2011 11:36 Clbull wrote:
1. I want to ask. How can I hammer down the basic mechanics of the Terran race solidly in my brain to the point where I won't even have to consciously think about SCV production, avoiding supply blockage and producing units out of everything I got every 2 seconds? I want to be Diamond League potential at least but I don't think I could be a player of that quality until I do this at the very minimum.
. You know theres a production que right? You can just leave 5 scvs in the que at the command center and they will all produce non stop without a break. Same for factory/barracks lol
but that's not necessarily the best way to macro as the queded up stuff are minerals not being used.
anyways. i would probably focus on scv's first since they are the ones that basically build constantly throughout the entire game.
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SCVs > supply depots > units > production facilities > tech/upgrades
expand when you have your base saturated with SCVs.
enjoy master league.
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I mess up a lot too.
But currently I always doing B,E,E (press B then E twice) for Probe production.
You might hear this very often at early game: "not enough mineral" Or, even worst, the dreaded "you must construct additional pylon" (my case):D
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Probes and Pylons.
I'm mid masters and this is still my biggest problem.
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I did the same 1-2 builds per matchup every game since Brood War (basically like 7 years? iuno, not bothering to count) and I still sometimes hit 1k minerals with supply blocks. You got some catching up to do lol ;; the fact that you posted this means you don't really care enough to spend the time to grind mechanics. Get to it son ~
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On November 16 2011 15:10 Betalump wrote:
Probes and Pylons.
I'm mid masters and this is still my biggest problem.
I found that as you try to learn to make workers properly, just make 2 at a time and then as 1 finishes make a 2nd one. Yes you will be spending an extra 100~ minerals in limbo but most of the time you will end up with a much stronger worker count than the opponent.
As you slowly learn the timings to create workers this way you can shave that down to the last 5 seconds per worker and save yourself the extra 100 to do other things. It worked really well for me and applies to T/P much more than Z sadly 
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On November 16 2011 12:12 Clbull wrote:Show nested quote +On November 16 2011 12:12 CharlieBrownsc wrote:
Do it one thing at a time. Don't say "macro better macro better macro better"
First fix your scvs, then fix your supply blocks, then fix your que'ing, then fix your etc. etc. etc. Good point, but let's say I have a shittonne of flaws, how do I prioritise what ones are most severe and are in the biggest need of fixing?
I'm not sure you really need to worry. Just choose one arbitrarily and go with it. day[9] did a newbie tuesday on it, and some guy lost a game due to some horrendous engagements and lack of upgrades, and decided that his problem in that game had been creep spread. That may not have been the case but the guy went ahead and over the next couple of games improved his creep spread. He still lost games, but he lost them with creep all over the map.
Just choose one, and stick with it. Then when it's improved, you can look at another.
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EPT
