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Some of you may notice that i'm very interested in the apm/eapm aspect of the game.
anyway, I was watching fpvods recently, and i discovered something that pros do very well that I don't do often is screen switching.
screen switching is the ability to turn your screen from one area of play quickly to the next without interrupted play. by moving the screen around to all visible areas of the map, and commanding the units in that area, you're effectively multitasking. By default, this raises your Eapm.
So I was stuck at around 130 apm for the last 6 months, wondering how the heck do pros and some foreigners get such high eapm. I just played a game with the intention of screen switch as efficiently and quickly as possible. The end result was that I had 152 Eapm for an 18 minute game. That's +22 eapm higher than my average.
The pitfall is because I'm not use to it yet, my control is abysmal. The more I refine my play and incorporate my screen switching, surely the higher my eapm will go.
For those who are interest about Eapm, hopefully this has helped you. Try to incorporate more screen switching into your game to improve your multitasking and your eapm will skyrocket.
 
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Was this your secret to high apm?
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Every time I try screen switching, I forget they were ever there. I usually use space bar, and minimap. I have to agree that screen switching can be very useful, but you are blowing it way out of proportion. 152 eapm is nothing to brag about.
tl;dr: Screen switching is good, but not that good.
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i know 152 isn't something to brag about, that is why i mentioned it. anyway, i thought i would share alittle something that i learned even if some don't think it's helpful.
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United States3824 Posts
Rage made a point awhile back that it isn't the speed at which you perform an action that is slowing one down its the time between the actions. So any time that you have to think about what you are doing (or do something inefficent like re rallying) your APM goes down. See if you can't juggle what you are doing and the next thing that you have to do in your mind at once.
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you need to spam hotkeys to get high apms. look at nada's replay. he pressed way more hotkeys than mouse action.
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The problem with most people and APM peaks is that they just don't know what else they should be doing during quiet parts of the game. As you incorporate more scouting and harass into your game, you'll see your APM increase without trying. Partly because it'll force you to come up with more efficient ways to do the things you're already doing in order to incorporate the new movements, but also just because you can't be doing more things than you know you're supposed to be doing. That's why you see people with 30 APM who have no idea why their APM should be any higher. They're just unaware there's so many more things they should be doing.
If you have more things to do than you have APM to do, you might just need to learn the interface of the game better (hotkeys, fkeys, shift select, shift move... etc etc). This isn't wholly directed at the OP but just anyone in general thinking about APM.
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my apm has jumped about 40-50 out of the blue, i dont know if im just trying harder or what but it was never this fast before even when i tried really hard lol...
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On January 28 2009 06:43 KingofHearts wrote:
you need to spam hotkeys to get high apms. look at nada's replay. he pressed way more hotkeys than mouse action.
Adding to this:
Having your hotkeys as 1,2,3,4 units, and 5,6,7,8, gateways, and 9,0 nexus is only about 3~ screens that you switch between if you mash hotkeys. So either your mouse speed needs to improve too if you plan in clicking on the minimap, or you need to use your hotkeys for a variety of things to be effective. Or both 
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It's really stupid to try to meet a certain goal APM through artificial means.
If you want to raise your EAPM, move your units. I have 250 EAPM in some games with 400 APM when I am controlling SK terran, and I can only surmise it's from moving my units nonstop, because when I play metal and my APM drops to 300 my EAPM also drops to 190-200.
No doubt I'll receive a lot of garbage from people saying I'm bragging and whatever, but this is my experience with EAPM.
Ultimately, it's irrelevant. When I have 250 EAPM it's just because I'm controlling more units more carefully. It doesn't mean I played better in the 250 EAPM game with SK terran than I did in the 190 EAPM game with metal.
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On January 28 2009 06:40 cgrinker wrote:
Rage made a point awhile back that it isn't the speed at which you perform an action that is slowing one down its the time between the actions. So any time that you have to think about what you are doing (or do something inefficent like re rallying) your APM goes down. See if you can't juggle what you are doing and the next thing that you have to do in your mind at once.
Exactly, that's why it's better to think actively rather than passively during a game. It increases your efficiency by a lot and you're always going to be doing something, and you're doing it faster as well.
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On January 28 2009 07:46 NoobsOfWrath wrote:
It's really stupid to try to meet a certain goal APM through artificial means.
If you want to raise your EAPM, move your units. I have 250 EAPM in some games with 400 APM when I am controlling SK terran, and I can only surmise it's from moving my units nonstop, because when I play metal and my APM drops to 300 my EAPM also drops to 190-200.
No doubt I'll receive a lot of garbage from people saying I'm bragging and whatever, but this is my experience with EAPM.
Ultimately, it's irrelevant. When I have 250 EAPM it's just because I'm controlling more units more carefully. It doesn't mean I played better in the 250 EAPM game with SK terran than I did in the 190 EAPM game with metal.
Reps? ^^ I hardly ever see pros with over 200 eapm.
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By the way how do you measure EAPM, I don't think it's the VAPM in bwchart?
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On January 28 2009 07:54 Chef wrote:Show nested quote +On January 28 2009 07:46 NoobsOfWrath wrote:
It's really stupid to try to meet a certain goal APM through artificial means.
If you want to raise your EAPM, move your units. I have 250 EAPM in some games with 400 APM when I am controlling SK terran, and I can only surmise it's from moving my units nonstop, because when I play metal and my APM drops to 300 my EAPM also drops to 190-200.
No doubt I'll receive a lot of garbage from people saying I'm bragging and whatever, but this is my experience with EAPM.
Ultimately, it's irrelevant. When I have 250 EAPM it's just because I'm controlling more units more carefully. It doesn't mean I played better in the 250 EAPM game with SK terran than I did in the 190 EAPM game with metal. Reps? ^^ I hardly ever see pros with over 200 eapm.
I'm certainly no progamer, that's for sure.
I know I've seen 250 EAPM before on my replays, but these are the ones I could find with a 5 minute search before I didn't want to keep looking:
http://www.repdepot.net/replay.php?id=7274&key=b37b9e - 221 EAPM
http://www.repdepot.net/replay.php?id=7275&key=0e06f0 - 239 EAPM
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On January 28 2009 08:33 Nytefish wrote:
By the way how do you measure EAPM, I don't think it's the VAPM in bwchart?
Download bwrepinfo.
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On January 28 2009 09:14 skyglow1 wrote:Show nested quote +On January 28 2009 08:33 Nytefish wrote:
By the way how do you measure EAPM, I don't think it's the VAPM in bwchart? Download bwrepinfo.
Thanks.
Turns out my eapm is only a bit lower than my unadjusted apm, interesting...
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Basically by constant screen switching you're double tapping your keys more often (ie. pressing 2 selects the unit, pressing 2 again centers the screen over the unit). All you've essentially done is spammed your control keys more...
Don't get hung up on apm it will plague your game with bad habits that will take a long time to break in the future. Take it from me, I spent years as a 300apm D6/D- Terran. Only in the last year have I finally started grasping concepts and really understanding this game and have started improving. I'd be improving a lot better if I still didn't possess bad habits I developed from trying to have high APM.
APM is a reflection of your mental capacity in this game; the faster you can process the ideas of macro, micro, scouting, expanding, moving your army around, keeping supply count up and making your BO's crisp and perfectly executed, the quicker your hands will get to keep up with the increased rate of thought, and essentially the higher your APM will become.
APM isn't something you TRY to make higher. Focusing on playing fast will distract you from actually playing.
I essentially had to take a year long break from this game, and start completely fresh, essentially all over again. I started out by learning BO's, and ultimately using my head a lot more and really trying to form good habits to macro, scout well, control my army well, etc; I was around 180 APM when I started up. I'm now around 220-260 APM (depending on game length) and playing better than I ever have. My macro is a lot better, but still sucks, go figure.
To put it a bit more into perspective:
-I used to be ~300APM with 60-70% hotkey usage and at a D- level
-Now I'm ~240 APM with ~45-50% hotkey usage and playing at around D+/C-
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Northern Ireland1200 Posts
wth is Eapm ? I know apm, but eapm? wtf is this some sorta new thing? never heard of ..
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On January 28 2009 09:24 FREEloss_ca wrote:
To put it a bit more into perspective:
-I used to be ~300APM with 60-70% hotkey usage and at a D- level
-Now I'm ~240 APM with ~45-50% hotkey usage and playing at around D+/C-
you think that because trying to raise your eapm or apm disrupts your game that you shouldn't do it? I think every pro goes through trying to raise their apm or eapm.
i remember when idra went to estro daniel lee made it his mission to get idra to raise his apm.
for sure if you're not naturally fast, you're going to be uncomfortable raising your apm. but the point is to be faster. If a guy was comfortable with 140 apm and never tried to be faster, he would be at a plateau.
There was a time when I was average 140 apm, but month after month i tried to raise it, each time finding many disruptions to my game because i couldn't get use to the faster speed. eventually i got up to 250 which is where i'm currently have. you have to 'practice' playing faster. of course you're gonna be confused in the first few months because you're not use to the speed, but eventually you will be.
as another example, it's like a guy going to the gym and only lifting 30 kg dumbbells. he doesn't want to lift more because he's not comfortable. well, the point is to try to get you to that point whereyou are comfortable. and eventually you'll get there.
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EPT
