I'm a long time SC2 player trying BW for the first time, and one of the things I'm having trouble with is counting workers on a base in order to know when to stop making them, or how many to transfer to a new base when I expand.

In SC2 this is easy because the worker count shows on top of the CC/Nexus/Hatchery, but not in BW. I also can't select them all to count them because of the 12 unit selection limit.

Is there a quick and efficient way to check the worker count on a particular base?

TT1

Canada10028 Posts

July 10 2018 00:49 GMT

box 1 side of ur min line (12), box the other side of ur min line (should be less than 12), add them up

sc2 didnt show worker counts in WoL either

Atom[Bomb]

Sweden108 Posts

July 10 2018 00:49 GMT

One way to do it is to first select one side of the mineral line and then select the other side of the mineral line.
Finally add the two numbers together.

For example, you select the top-most part: 7 workers.
Then you select the bottom-most part: 6 workers:
6+7 = 13 workers.

simple math!

*Edit: TT1 was faster darn!

KameZerg

Sweden1769 Posts

July 10 2018 01:00 GMT

Are you Zerg?

ciel123

12 Posts

July 10 2018 01:09 GMT

Thanks guys. I actually was doing the half-and-half method already but it felt kinda awkward. I guess I'll get used to it.

@KameZerg, I'm Terran.

bovienchien

Vietnam1152 Posts

July 10 2018 01:19 GMT

It's not important. You can count workers by your eye. Terran usually counts workers his opponent when he scans at his opponent's base and then he counts by his eye. Number of workers show his opponent who has taken 3rd base or not

I have another way. You can buy workers until supply 80/200 or 100/200.

funnybananaman

United States830 Posts

July 10 2018 01:45 GMT

Not sure about sc2 but bw you want about 18-22 workers for best mining speed at a 10 patch base, any more and u should transfer those to a new base to mine optimally. no other way to count than the click and drag method.

Moataz

Egypt267 Posts

July 10 2018 08:16 GMT

Use MacroAlone map
or
Use the CoachAI (doesn't work for SC:R)

You also encouraged me to add this feature (Minerals workers count above each Resource Depot) to the CoachAI.

g0rynich

Russian Federation139 Posts

July 10 2018 10:17 GMT

in top games terran produces workers all time, you just dont need to stop

Highgamer

1451 Posts

July 10 2018 10:29 GMT

#10

Dude, now that is too simply put.

Obviously you have to build workers non-stop for the first 10 minutes or so. But after an emergency-transfer for example against harrass or if one of your expansions went up later than usual or if you lost a few workers, you have to figure out how many workers you have exactly in your bases to know how many you want to transfer.

Or you just transfer a rough number, but that's not optimal.

Also over-saturation is just inefficient. Yes, it's nice to have too many workers in the event of an attack where you lose some or if you plan to take another base soon, but generally speaking you want to avoid over-saturation to free up resources/supply for army-investments.

On another note: From my experience, aside from the actual counting of workers, a bigger issue is actually checking your mineral-lines regularly (and then counting obviously).
I check/count workers way too rarely myself. If I look at my replays (or the streams of non-pro-streamers) I see it almost every game that some bases are over-/under-satuared for minutes, resulting in hundreds of minerals being lost just to bad worker distribution.

art_of_turtle

United States1203 Posts

July 11 2018 02:19 GMT

#11

Have you tried counting them?

Worker counting really only matters for zerg due to the fact everything is built out of the hatchery, but for toss and terran, I wouldn't worry about it too much. if you make a new base,just add a few from your main and nat,and dont stop producing probes/scvs.

As a zerg though a rule of thumb is that for every 4 efficient mining drones, is constant lings supported, and for nonstop mutas per hatch is 7 on minerals, 2 on gas. ex. 2h Muta 14 mineral mining drones, 4 gas mining drones.

After that its ok to simply put 1.5 drones per mineral patch to be efficient in mining.

TelecoM

United States10700 Posts

July 11 2018 06:22 GMT

#12

Counting + Muscle memory over time, a lot of the time you really aren't counting workers, just producing them constantly and expanding when necessary. it becomes more natural as time progresses, really the only time you would be counting workers is in the early / mid game, to potentially make sure you build order is correct.

After that it is more about mining efficiency per base and you are producing workers nonstop up to a certain point really, it will become more of a natural feel for how many workers to transfer rather than counting them specifically, and when transferring usually you would only use 6-7 workers, from that first base that has been producing nonstop, so in theory it should always have around the same amount regardless, depending on matchup.

Moataz

Egypt267 Posts

July 11 2018 09:37 GMT

#13

Ok done, still doesn't work on SC:R

Greg_J

China4409 Posts

July 11 2018 10:34 GMT

#14

I assumed this would be about counting the opponents workers to see what build they are doing. I never really thought about counting my workers (I don't play to a high standard at all).

SuGo

United States681 Posts

July 11 2018 17:57 GMT

#15

On July 11 2018 15:22 GGzerG wrote:
Counting + Muscle memory over time, a lot of the time you really aren't counting workers, just producing them constantly and expanding when necessary. it becomes more natural as time progresses, really the only time you would be counting workers is in the early / mid game, to potentially make sure you build order is correct.

After that it is more about mining efficiency per base and you are producing workers nonstop up to a certain point really, it will become more of a natural feel for how many workers to transfer rather than counting them specifically, and when transferring usually you would only use 6-7 workers, from that first base that has been producing nonstop, so in theory it should always have around the same amount regardless, depending on matchup.

This.

More or less how it becomes with practice. Now, in most of my games, without even thinking about it, I'm stopping my probe production between 60-70. I'm not even counting or thinking about it either. It will just come with practice.

I suppose it's good practice to check your bases as others mentioned by manually selecting 12 and so on. But even for this point, I will just eye ball it, and if I feel my Main is a bit too saturated, I'll just select 4-5 and send them to the natural to keep optimal mining (or try to keep it at least). So even this, it comes with practice to "Eyeball" it. But - I see some pros doing the clicking method as well, so who am I to go against that.

TonDan

65 Posts

July 11 2018 23:49 GMT

#16

don't pros continue to produce workers until around 11 minutes or 12 minutes? Every replay i've seen of Flash and Bisu their peons continue producing until around 12 minutes.

Jealous

10308 Posts

July 12 2018 00:54 GMT

#17

On July 12 2018 08:49 TonDan wrote:
don't pros continue to produce workers until around 11 minutes or 12 minutes? Every replay i've seen of Flash and Bisu their peons continue producing until around 12 minutes.

There are plenty of builds that require Probe/SCV cuts, and it is also heavily dependent on worker losses, build choice, etc.