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I was watching TSLPolt's stream a few moments ago when I thought I saw him doing something pretty nifty with his scv's. Turns out he wasn't, but the thought that occurred to me was pretty cool nonetheless. I haven't heard anyone mention this before, but since it's possible that someone has, I decided to keep it in the blog to avoid redundancy.
So, without further ado, the trick. We all know how pesky it is to have to shift-click scv's back to mineral patches after ordering them to build something. I have nightmares that one day, I'll lose my whole fucking base while tending to this tedious task. Luckily, there is another way.
When ordering your scv to build a supply depot, or any other building, select an scv from the mineral line that is carrying a parcel of minerals. This way, when you make the build command (b+s), you can issue a further command (shift+c) to send the worker back to the CC after he's done, whereafter he will continue mining. (For those who don't know, c is for return cargo).
The idea behind this neat little trick is, if practised well, it can save you substantial time and APM.
The downsides to this approach are that 1) some minerals are tied up while building, and 2) selecting mineral-carrying scv's is harder than box-clicking the mineral line. However, in certain cases where you only have to build one depot and are pressed for time, this trick could certainly be useful.
I wanted to make sure the action is foolproof so I tested it out in a custom game. This revealed that the command works in most cases, except for when you issue it twice, either by doing shift+c twice or shift+c+c. In such cases, the scv will return the minerals but will not go back to mining.
This trick also works with multiple scv's building multiple buildings (obviously, the return command should only be issued once all scv build commands have been issued).
 
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I thought everyone did that...
Thanks for posting anyways.
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Losing mineral from multiple building scvs early can be detrimental. No need to save APM in such a manner anyhow.
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Does it really take you that long to add the additional shift-click command to return mining? Protoss players need to do that too (even though their probe will return to mining much faster than the scv). You can also use your minimap or F# hotkeys for locations to go back to your minerals, rather than just scrolling...
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I've seen (on stream) multiple korean pros combat this by dealing with the return to minerals later. At the worst of times, it doesn't take much lack of attention to lose more than even 60 seconds of idle worker time.
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On November 10 2012 06:53 DarkPlasmaBall wrote:
Does it really take you that long to add the additional shift-click command to return mining? Protoss players need to do that too (even though their probe will return to mining much faster than the scv). You can also use your minimap or F# hotkeys for locations to go back to your minerals, rather than just scrolling...
I thought that was what he was talking about? 
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5/5 would read again. lol
Actually I noticed that once the SCV is building something, you don't even need to press shift to issue the following command because the SCV is busy and it doesn't mess up the queue. Maybe I'm just going mental today and I just noticed it, but it's pretty cool.
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On November 10 2012 08:21 Antylamon wrote:Show nested quote +On November 10 2012 06:53 DarkPlasmaBall wrote:
Does it really take you that long to add the additional shift-click command to return mining? Protoss players need to do that too (even though their probe will return to mining much faster than the scv). You can also use your minimap or F# hotkeys for locations to go back to your minerals, rather than just scrolling... I thought that was what he was talking about?
Hm? I'm just confused on why it takes him that long to queue up the command to send a worker back to mining after telling it to build a structure. He says he's worried about losing a game because of it. It should take a second.
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On November 10 2012 14:14 DarkPlasmaBall wrote:Show nested quote +On November 10 2012 08:21 Antylamon wrote:On November 10 2012 06:53 DarkPlasmaBall wrote:
Does it really take you that long to add the additional shift-click command to return mining? Protoss players need to do that too (even though their probe will return to mining much faster than the scv). You can also use your minimap or F# hotkeys for locations to go back to your minerals, rather than just scrolling... I thought that was what he was talking about? Hm? I'm just confused on why it takes him that long to queue up the command to send a worker back to mining after telling it to build a structure. He says he's worried about losing a game because of it. It should take a second.
clearly he deems it worthy of attention, he wouldn't write this blog if he didn't think so.
nice write-up on a neat trick everyone should know.
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At higher levels its better to look directly at where u want the SCV to go. That way u don't crowd a mineral patch.
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On November 10 2012 10:10 sorrowptoss wrote:
5/5 would read again. lol
Actually I noticed that once the SCV is building something, you don't even need to press shift to issue the following command because the SCV is busy and it doesn't mess up the queue. Maybe I'm just going mental today and I just noticed it, but it's pretty cool.
Hehe. Thanks. What you say is probably right and didn't occur to me when writing this up. I focused mainly on the shift command because my intention was to have the order executed before the scv started building, saving as much time as possible.
On November 10 2012 14:14 DarkPlasmaBall wrote:Show nested quote +On November 10 2012 08:21 Antylamon wrote:On November 10 2012 06:53 DarkPlasmaBall wrote:
Does it really take you that long to add the additional shift-click command to return mining? Protoss players need to do that too (even though their probe will return to mining much faster than the scv). You can also use your minimap or F# hotkeys for locations to go back to your minerals, rather than just scrolling... I thought that was what he was talking about? Hm? I'm just confused on why it takes him that long to queue up the command to send a worker back to mining after telling it to build a structure. He says he's worried about losing a game because of it. It should take a second.
The bit about losing my whole fucking base was a joke Yes, it's completely down to preference. But I definitely think that it has application in very high-multitasking instances, like when you are trying to manage hellion harass in a zerg's main and build supply depots at the same time.
Anyway, thanks for reading <3
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I don't remember who but some pro deliberately leave some scvs idle just so they can f1 and build supply depot.
Personally I don't think your trick is very good because building multiple buildings mean you will have some idle scvs who aren't having any minerals in his hands and u need to tell them to get back mining anyway.
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EPT
