Here's a simple hot key game to help improve skill. We'll start with PvT. The object of the game is to visualize the game without actually playing. I want AS MANY PEOPLE TO PARTICIPATE AS POSSIBLE! your skill doesn't mater! But please trust me when i say that if you want to be better at starcraft you have to MASTER what your hands are doing as much as what your brain is doing.
Turn off your monitor and stare at the blank screen. Visualize a starcraft game, PvT on luna. Before turning off your monitor remember what hotkeys you use throughout the whole game. Go between watching your hands and watching the blank screen. If you can't remember the hotkey for something, put it in brakets. Make sure your using the best possible finger location when you preform the exersize. When you finish break up the hotkeys into different lines so when you finish it's more readable. If you have any funny hotkey combos your not sure people will get, mark them on the side.
here's my PvT blindfolded luna game.
0p0p0p0pbp0p0p bg0p0pba0p0pby 0p0pbp0p0p4d0p 5s0p4d0pbp0p4d <---- 5s = goon range 0p0pbn4d0pbp0p 0pbgbg4d0pvr0p 4d5d6d0p9pbp0p 9pvo4d5d6d0p9p bpbp0p9p8obgvc <---- 8o = make observer 4d5d6d0p9p8obp bp4z5z6z7z8s0p 9p8obnl <---- l is zealot legs 0p9pbpbpbgbgbg 4d5d6d7d0p9p8o bpbpbp4z5z6z7d 8d9d0df2pf3pf4p bpbp4z5z6z7z8z9 0zvtvsbpbp4z5z 6z7d8d9d0dbnbp bpvsvabfbf4d5d 6d7d8d9d0bpbp [arb][arb][stasis or recall]
* i accidentally posted this in the broodwar section rather than the strat section, my bad!
i think i added an extra 4d5d6d7d8d9d0 in there... hm... it's a lot harder to do if you don't have the game running.
There are many errors in that. It's not perfect. Take your time doing it, that took me about 8 minutes. When I've asked most of my friends to do this they usually don't get past 40 key strokes. Just see how far you can go and then explain your mindset while you were playing. Everyone please try this out : )
your game doesn't seem to involve an opponent, or anything of any interest at all for that matter (and you clearly can't remember the hotkewys for arbiters)
On July 09 2007 04:58 Resonate wrote: your game doesn't seem to involve an opponent, or anything of any interest at all for that matter (and you clearly can't remember the hotkewys for arbiters)
Jesus who spat in your crumpets.
Does this game include the keys we spam, or is it just the important actions that actually do something? Either way, I just tried it and did not get that far. T_T
Oh and what is this suppose to do that will actually help improve our game?
No spamming. Only the actions that matter. This will teach you to utile the keyboard more and spend less time spamming to increase apm. By doing this you will be able to memorize the exact patterns required to get maxed and never miss pylons. I promise you it helps... otherwise i wouldn't have posted it. This is what korean pro teams do with their players so they can memorize the game better.
Resonate: Your an idiot. Sorry man. I put the arbiter and legs upgrades in brakets so other people could read what i was doing more easily. I suppose some people will suck at this game no mater how much you try to help them. Maybe that's because they spend more time bitching on tl.net and less time mastering techniques like these.
Everyone should post how far along they get. I promise you this will help your game. After you've tried this method a few times go into single player and put the game on slow mode against a computer. Watch your hands while you play and write your hotkey patterns out on a piece of paper next to the computer. This will greatly improve your starcraft muscle memory. I promise <3
frozzor maybe you're an idiot, tasteless sat down and showed me this, its actually an amazing idea, ive been doing it alot, it really helps early game.
On July 09 2007 11:49 oshibori_probe wrote: 4p4p4p4pbp4p4pbg4p4pba 4p4pby4pbp4p4p5d[select citadel - s] 4p
agh this is a good idea, must work on it
\
keep it up! i really recommend using 0 for nexus since it's right next to p. If you find it hard to learn, try going into single player on slowest mode and start practicing there.
again he outlines some very powerful information and people are ignoring it and acting like its "retarded". knowing your entire early game on the keyboard is amazingly good. you will never forget an scv or a unit. all of your buildings will be timed correctly. read it and reread it if you actually want to improve.
Seems like just a keyboard-oriented & diffrent way to write build orders.
Either your b.o. is non-optimal or your just happened to have one to may 0p. You have it set to build the 2nd pylon at 16psi, 18 to build goon, 21 for range, 25for pylon. Thats one to high for each really. Too lazy to go through the rest.
its really hard to write down, so this is not 100% accurate or complete
This is my tvp on longinus
3s3s3s3s3sbs3s bb2s2sbr2s2s3mbs rax wall bf2s2s2s4c3m2s4t factory, siege bc5s2s3tbsbe2s2sbs cc to expo,ebay bfbs2s3t1s2sbs4c 2nd fac, addon bfbf1a2aba3t4timbs 2 more facts, ion mine 1s2s3t4t5v6vbsbs90bc <-- macro gone wild when i hotkey comsats, i usually double tap them to get to command center and make scvs
if i follow this pattern, i can max in about 13 minutes and exceed 300 apm. many of you dont realize this, may explain why 80% of koreans have 3 times more apm than you do and just straight piledrive you on iccup.
On July 09 2007 11:49 oshibori_probe wrote: 4p4p4p4pbp4p4pbg4p4pba 4p4pby4pbp4p4p5d[select citadel - s] 4p
agh this is a good idea, must work on it
\
keep it up! i really recommend using 0 for nexus since it's right next to p. If you find it hard to learn, try going into single player on slowest mode and start practicing there.
I started off with 0, but then sum1 proposed some newfangled system of using 4 for nexus and that worked out for me in the time being, however I may go back to 4, but if u are quick enuf using the F keys for the other nexuses is good enuf.
However now that I control my units and shit more maybe I'll hotkey my nexuses with 0 and 9 and such.
On July 09 2007 13:05 wizardpl wrote: Is this what you people do in your spare time? You know, for one thing, I actually play the game as it was intended. -_- lol
[edit] I see the point of this, except it's kind of funny seeing a whole threaqd on it.
A thread on this is very valuable.
This excercise produces the same results as Blindfold Chess. I didn't know that the korean pro use this but it makes sense seeing as how pro Chess players can increase skill using blindfold Chess.
4s4s4s4sbs4s4sbb 8 depot 10 rax 4s4sbr4s4s5m4sbs 12 refin 15 depot 4sbf4s5l4s5v4sbs 16/17 fact (cant remember exactly) 5 (barracks lift to scout) (5v mistype should be c for machine shop) 4sbf4s5ts4sbs4s5t (5 is 1st fact for tank, followed by machine shop siege mode) 6c5t6vbfbf (6 is 2nd fact for machine shop.)
i think i would have to play a game and remember, because that is TvP, but sometimes ill 12 rax 12 refin instead of 10 rax 12 refin.
On July 12 2007 12:50 InfesTeD]i[ wrote: i dont get it OO
I have trouble understanding it too. You're supposed to open a Word document, turn off the monitor, and type out the hotkeys you'd use normally in a game?
On July 12 2007 12:50 InfesTeD]i[ wrote: i dont get it OO
I have trouble understanding it too. You're supposed to open a Word document, turn off the monitor, and type out the hotkeys you'd use normally in a game?
yes, sorry i should have explained it better. Basically you visualize what you would be building without playing. Then go into single player vs a comp and see if the build is correct. After that repeat the exersize again and again. It helps a lot, post how far along you get each time. Try to get maxed : ]
i think this is a wonderful excersize but i dont get it D;. Are you saying taht you dont have to use to mouse at all? Can you use hotkeys to move around ur units?
On July 18 2007 08:38 Loveless wrote: i think this is a wonderful excersize but i dont get it D;. Are you saying taht you dont have to use to mouse at all? Can you use hotkeys to move around ur units?
nonono
think of it like this: One of the hardest parts of SC is making sure your using all the hotkeys. The hotkeys are spread out all over the keyboard and it's hard to know where you need to move your hand next. While there are some actions you can't map out ahead of time, like how many times you'll click to move a dragoon or how many times you need to micro it and hit 'a' to kill a scouting scv, there are things you can map out. This would include things like your opening build 0p0p0p0pbp0p0pbg. I know i will always do that pattern at the start of the game with the keyboard, I've made probes a pylon and a gateway. I also know exactly which fingers to use when doing this. Basically this increases my overall grasp of the game. By doing this exercise in word pad with the monitor off, you can learn to visualize the whole game without actually playing it. Then the hard parts are out of the way and you can actually focus on strategy and micro.
When you are doing this exercise, are you also using the F2-4 keys? I've lately found these to be great for saving more hotkeys for your units (although I haven't gotten close to using hotkeys enough/correctly) when your tech is all in one screen. Also useful for watching your choke when you're off doing something with your army or working on macro.
On July 18 2007 12:36 FastEddieV wrote: When you are doing this exercise, are you also using the F2-4 keys? I've lately found these to be great for saving more hotkeys for your units (although I haven't gotten close to using hotkeys enough/correctly) when your tech is all in one screen. Also useful for watching your choke when you're off doing something with your army or working on macro.
Generally there's a moment when you can stop making probes, this also happens to be around the time when you'd be hotkeying your next few gateways [ctrl] 8 [ctrl] 9 [ctrl] 0
Then again if you lost a few probes early you may need to produce anyways, here's what i like to do:
Hotkey the nexus screens as f2 f3 f4 (which ever nexus's your producing from) use three diffrent fingers one each and use your thumb on p. it may feel unnatural at first but after a while you'll get used to it.
Also, at the start of the game hotkey your screen the locations your rushing. Like if your goon rushing hotkey that screen location as f2, maybe hotkey your ramp as f3 and your upcomming expo as f4. I have to admit i don't do it too often but that's at least something you can do with those keys early on^^
i must admit i dont really see the point in this. im supposed to play a game in my head and press the hotkeys. And this will help me how? IMO it will only help me find the right key 0.01 second faster and its not worth the time invested. Maybe im missing the point, in that case someone please enlighten me.
On July 18 2007 15:33 minus_human wrote: I'm looking really doubtful to the effectiveness of all this. Guess there's only one way to convince myself personally...
Just have to shake off the laziness first
On July 18 2007 14:22 niteReloaded wrote: i must admit i don't really see the point in this. i'm supposed to play a game in my head and press the hotkeys. And this will help me how? IMO it will only help me find the right key 0.01 second faster and its not worth the time invested. Maybe i'm missing the point, in that case someone please enlighten me.
get off your asses and do it. i show this to SO many people... in real life and online. only about 5% of them actually take the patience to learn it and master it. They improve drastically. The rest of the people i figure just don't care enough about this game to learn it or are to stubborn/blind to actually force themselves to do something.
What I've shown on this thread isn't easy, it takes a while to master this. But if you do your skill will improve. Trust me.
Also, understand that practicing this in wordpad is just the first step, the point it to force yourself to watch your hands so you know your using the right fingers. After that you have to go into single player and start applying the new method. Just keep doing it over and over until you start to get the hang of it. It makes sc 10x easier and more fun imo
But, what I'm not getting is how you're able to apply this in single player. Do you spam "0p" until you hit "0bp" and spam that? Or, do you just use one hotkey, "0p", and leave it as that until you make the other probe?(The latter sounds stupid though, so I'm guessing this isn't the case).
Explain it a little further >_<!! I really want to try this ~_~
I'd really like if you could specify which part of the game is this exercise supposed to improve? i tried it now a bit(i must admit im kinda sleepy after work and gym) and i visualized a TvP game; i made a few scvs, a supply, a barax, refinery, factory and a tank and mine upgrade. I cant go any further coz then the game depends on the intelligence i get from my scouting scv.
I have no idea how this is gonna help me tho. I will Press B S faster? i will the keys i pressed a milion times a milisecond faster? its not like im learing 50keypress combos. man, please say something else than "trust me its gonna make SC ez".
sorry guys, after re reading this I'm starting to realize that I'm not explaining a lot of this. The hotkey setup i have is very specific, it's setup so that i can use two fingers for every command, if i build a dragoon i hit '4' with my ring finger and 'p' with my pinky. At lans i've seen all sorts of people not utilize all of their fingers.
Sc starts up at a very slow pace... slowly it begins to faster and faster and faster. Eventually it's going so fast your left hand never stops moving. Your going so fast you can never take your eyes off the screen and you can never look at your hands once the game goes into late phases. But how do you know where your hand needs to go? What if you knew which keys you were going minutes before you hit them. What if you knew all these keys all the way until you got maxed. Well, the easiest way to do that would be to practice the keyboard patterns without the game on.
Lets look at these immages and think about sc further:
first break these keys off if you don't, and if your a terran player break the "," key off your keyboard, i've seen a lot of pros do that since they have to hit 'm' with out missing and still play quickly. If anyone is too stubborn or skeptical to do this for GOD SAKE break off the windows keys at least.
now look at these:
these are all the keys you would hit to 'B'uild a basic protoss building. Notice some are on one side of the keyboard and some are on the other. You always use three fingers to build something as protoss: one finger on the 'b' key one finger on the desired building and another finger on the shift key so your probe can go back to mining minerals. if the building is on the left side of the keyboard you would generally use your index on 'b' another finger in between on 'c' (just for example) and then your pinky on shift. If it was on the right side of the keyboard you would use your pinky on the 'b' key another finger for the building key like 'p' (just for example again) and your thumb on the shift key.
Here's the advanced buildings. Look... they're also very spread out. Use the same logic as in the first diagram to map out your hand positions.
Here's all the keys you would use to make units from the gateways, notice the most used units are on the left side of the keyboard, with this idea in mind we would hotkey the gateways as 4 and up so that the pinky can always hit 'z' or 'd' and then we use the other fingers to bounce across the top number keys. also, those numbers at the top are the order in which i bind the gateways.
think of these keyboard patterns as combos like you would in street fighter or notes like you would in a game of beatmania. by getting very used to these patterns you can increase your speed by unimaginable amounts. What's more important though is you can write out your entire builds noting every single action on the keyboard that must be taken.
here's a simple combo i sometimes use in PvZ 0p9p8o7o, i made two probes an observer and a corsair, all those keys are right next to each other... and i can do it in less than a second, a simple 8 key combination.
the point of this exercise is to force yourself to play the game without actually 'playing' and instead start to really really really master the keyboard patterns in your mind so that when your playing a real game against someone you want to beat your never worrying about when you need to get your next pylon or how many more times you need to make probes before you get a dragoon.
for now i would recommend everyone copies that hotkey setup i have. I find it to be very strong and easy to use once you've started to master this.
Oh and don't spam when you do this, this will get you out of useless spamming habbits that sometimes distract players from actually thinking about late game. This way you don't have to spam your next move (if you don't want to) because you know what your next moves are going to be far ahead.
I understand how this works early/mid game, but late game its kinda hard considering the amount of units that you have to hotkey, especially tvp and tvz. I end up using one hotkey to go to rax/factory, and manually click all of them. I even know a few people who dont hotkey their units period ...
On August 05 2007 21:37 wizardpl wrote: Oh wait, another thing, are you supposed to do this very quickly? like as fast as possible, or do we want to imitate the game speed?
Exactly my question!
out of this topic, how are you doing wizardpl, u still have 2 wins? I want to play you sometime.
On August 05 2007 21:37 wizardpl wrote: Oh wait, another thing, are you supposed to do this very quickly? like as fast as possible, or do we want to imitate the game speed?
Um, methinks you imitate the game speed, like:
Each "0p" is a probe. So, your hotkey pattern should correlate with your build order. Like in the original post, "0p0p0p0pbp0p0p", it's 5 probe, 6, 7, 8, build pylon, 9, then queued 10th probe.
So, you just remember that and try memorizing it and you won't even have to think of your hotkeys anymore. Think of it like walking. Do you really think about walking? No, you just move your legs and you're accustomed to walking since you've done it for so long, you don't have to think about it. Now, with this hotkey pattern, you do it so many times it becomes natural and you won't ever miss your BO(I hate forgetting that 15pylon in PvT...) and you won't really have to think about it.
I'm guessing what koreans spam all the time is their hotkey pattern at the beginning of the game, whereas with foreigners it's just random hotkeys, sometimes even taking it to the extreme and hotkeying their main building from 1-0 and just hitting each key(rofl).
On July 20 2007 15:33 niteReloaded wrote: I'd really like if you could specify which part of the game is this exercise supposed to improve? i tried it now a bit(i must admit im kinda sleepy after work and gym) and i visualized a TvP game; i made a few scvs, a supply, a barax, refinery, factory and a tank and mine upgrade. I cant go any further coz then the game depends on the intelligence i get from my scouting scv.
I have no idea how this is gonna help me tho. I will Press B S faster? i will the keys i pressed a milion times a milisecond faster? its not like im learing 50keypress combos. man, please say something else than "trust me its gonna make SC ez".
exactly my thoughts... i mean.. i could build every building and do every upgrade very quickly just fine and naturally without having to thnik what fingers im gonna use.... i dont forget scvs, buildings, or anything cuz its all part of the early game routine...
On July 20 2007 15:33 niteReloaded wrote: I'd really like if you could specify which part of the game is this exercise supposed to improve? i tried it now a bit(i must admit im kinda sleepy after work and gym) and i visualized a TvP game; i made a few scvs, a supply, a barax, refinery, factory and a tank and mine upgrade. I cant go any further coz then the game depends on the intelligence i get from my scouting scv.
I have no idea how this is gonna help me tho. I will Press B S faster? i will the keys i pressed a milion times a milisecond faster? its not like im learing 50keypress combos. man, please say something else than "trust me its gonna make SC ez".
exactly my thoughts... i mean.. i could build every building and do every upgrade very quickly just fine and naturally without having to thnik what fingers im gonna use.... i dont forget scvs, buildings, or anything cuz its all part of the early game routine...
so whats this supposed to do to help really?
+1
Is it really so hard to learn your BO (through practice) so that you need to use this ...strange... method?
Also, I "spam" a lot during first couple of minutes, because it sets my speed for the rest of the game and warms up my mouse holding hand for more accurate clicks, so this method doesn't apply to me.
I've noticed a lot of users on this forum respond to these training ideas with a response like "Lol no0b u suck go practice!" I call on these people to suggest their own practicing strategy. If the only one you can come up with happens to be "play more games," its important to realize that occasionally there are plateaus in gaining skills. there is a certain point that you can't really get better at somthing just by repetition. Some people see this point as a chance to take a crack at it from another angle.
Just something to think about, go ahead and pull if its too off topic.
Now that i read this once again, i must admit it is actually a good idea for an exercise.
Here's the deal, (im not sure tasteless explained the theory behind this).
Our brain is what actually plays the game right?
Everything we see on our monitor.. ---> goes to our brain --> gets processed ---> our brain decides something ---> impulses go to our hands to execute the decision.
What this exercise does is perfect the final stage of this sequence. It is supposed to make you feel the keyboard and mouse[edited] as the extensions of your hands.
Just like you can walk and run without using 1% of your active attention, you can also do the mechanical part of BW in the same way. I think thats the point, right Nick?
(i only read the OP this time, so I have no idea if what i wrote is actually what tasteless said somewhere, maybe it just came out of my unconscience as my idea... anyways, its a good exercise.)
This exercise is an awesome idea. It's simply a way of training muscle memory so that your use of the keyboard is as efficient as possible. I think Tasteless's point about using the correct fingers is VERY important. If you don't actually concentrate in the beginning on using the most efficient fingering and relaxing your hand, this won't be nearly as effective. I'm going to give it a try as soon as I've got the time. Thanks for the great suggestion!
Sorry for thread necro but this idea is intriguing. I notice a big problem for me is constant inaccuracy with my keyboard hand. I can type without looking pretty fast and accurate, but when playing SC I have no "feel" for the number keys and combos. Wonder if practicing slow and deliberate like this would help, just like starting out typing.
cant rly give much solid typing advice but to practice. i can type essays blindfolded with only rare minor typos. my advice is to try doing all ur typing without looking at the keyboard. like i made this whole post without looking.
oh on a random note: rumor has it that people that play the piano are good typers. i played piano since i was 4 so i guess that might be an reason xD
hahaha page 1 is a good example of the "old school TL" that everyone says is 1000x better than post-sc2 TL.
Tasteless and Artosis giving advice and people calling them "retarded" lol...
This looks kinda interesting, though...I don't play BW anymore but it'd be fun to play a blindfolded match adn see how well my muscle memory retained its BW days
Wow tasteless made nice guide in 2008, althought this topic is retarted Writing and playing on keyboard are diffrent skills. Your hand is placed in diffrent way to hit ctrl 1 fast. Either way if you write without looking at keyboard remember you can look at keyboard while playing but you have to make everything with hotkeys. If you are going to click by mouse you will never be forced to learn it.
Hey guys, i am sorry for this question but i am new here starting to play a little BW. The question is: what do all the "p" and "0" and "b" "g" stands for.. it looks like a shortcut for something.. would be very glad if someone could help me cause starcraft 1 is my favorite strategy game and i want to improve my skills by learining from you
The letters are protoss hotkeys. Numbers are hotkeys assigned by pressing Ctrl - #. So for example "0p" selects a nexus that is assigned to 0 and builds a probe. "bg" stands for build gateway.
On April 11 2012 04:21 thedevolis wrote: thank you very much now i understand that..
To add to what he said, the best way to improve your skills early on is to never CLICK on icons such as the Probe icon at the Nexus. Learn all the hotkeys for each unit, building, and command. For example, p is for probe, z is zealot, d is dragoon. For commands, b is build, b p is build pylon, b c is build cannon (etc.), a is attack to destination (have to left click after clicking a), p is patrol, s is stop, h is hold position, c is return resources, so on and so on.
On April 11 2012 04:21 thedevolis wrote: thank you very much now i understand that..
To add to what he said, the best way to improve your skills early on is to never CLICK on icons such as the Probe icon at the Nexus. Learn all the hotkeys for each unit, building, and command. For example, p is for probe, z is zealot, d is dragoon. For commands, b is build, b p is build pylon, b c is build cannon (etc.), a is attack to destination (have to left click after clicking a), p is patrol, s is stop, h is hold position, c is return resources, so on and so on.
Best of luck!
Pretty sure Jaedong mouse clicks overlord and research icons.
On April 11 2012 04:21 thedevolis wrote: thank you very much now i understand that..
To add to what he said, the best way to improve your skills early on is to never CLICK on icons such as the Probe icon at the Nexus. Learn all the hotkeys for each unit, building, and command. For example, p is for probe, z is zealot, d is dragoon. For commands, b is build, b p is build pylon, b c is build cannon (etc.), a is attack to destination (have to left click after clicking a), p is patrol, s is stop, h is hold position, c is return resources, so on and so on.
Best of luck!
Pretty sure Jaedong mouse clicks overlord and research icons.
EPT
![[image loading]](http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a151/tasteless9/keyboard1.jpg)
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![[image loading]](http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a151/tasteless9/keyboardv.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a151/tasteless9/keyboardgateways.jpg)
