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[G] Self-Improvement - Page 2

Forum Index > Brood War Strategy
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Seraphim
Profile Blog Joined March 2006
United States4467 Posts
February 04 2008 23:28 GMT
#21
<3 you Chill
Hermes | Bisu[Shield] Fighting~!
ShaLLoW[baY]
Profile Blog Joined January 2007
Canada12499 Posts
February 04 2008 23:32 GMT
#22
On February 05 2008 06:50 gwho wrote:
whats boxer's apm? like 400?


It's a bit irrelevant to the thread topic, but I'm pretty sure Boxer is one of the lower APM pros.
ALEXISONFIRE ARE FUCKING BACK (sAviOr for life)
xBTx
Profile Blog Joined July 2007
Canada542 Posts
February 05 2008 01:21 GMT
#23
Mass appreciation Chill. Hopefully this will cause great improvement in many players' games
stuffing feathers up your butt doesnt make you a chicken
Seraphim
Profile Blog Joined March 2006
United States4467 Posts
Last Edited: 2008-02-05 01:42:05
February 05 2008 01:40 GMT
#24
I love you so much Chill

Had to say it again

This is definitely a piece of work. Great job on it!
Hermes | Bisu[Shield] Fighting~!
Radical
Profile Blog Joined March 2007
United States481 Posts
February 05 2008 03:45 GMT
#25
Wow, thank you for this great write-up.
fanatacist
Profile Blog Joined August 2007
10319 Posts
Last Edited: 2008-02-05 04:05:25
February 05 2008 03:54 GMT
#26
On February 05 2008 08:32 ShaLLoW[baY] wrote:
Show nested quote +
On February 05 2008 06:50 gwho wrote:
whats boxer's apm? like 400?


It's a bit irrelevant to the thread topic, but I'm pretty sure Boxer is one of the lower APM pros.

EDIT: There is a blog on this now.
Peace~
alphafuzard
Profile Blog Joined June 2007
United States1610 Posts
February 05 2008 04:00 GMT
#27
w00t i vote recommended!!!
more weight
skyglow1
Profile Blog Joined April 2005
New Zealand3962 Posts
Last Edited: 2008-02-05 05:37:20
February 05 2008 05:08 GMT
#28
Agree with everything except this:

Mechanics must come after game sense, or you will be controlling your units very quickly and accurately, but giving them the wrong commands. For example, many people can control a few speed Zerglings very well against a Marine and SCVs, but it takes someone with a good understanding of the game to realize when they should charge the Marine, when they should target SCVs and when they should retreat and target buildings.


I prefer to focus on mechanics first and get them top notch before attempting to start thinking about the strategical aspect of the game. My reasoning is that in every game you play with poor macro and poor micro etc, you are drilling in bad habits which I found were REALLY hard to change once I realised what I was doing wrong. On the other hand, it isn't as destructive when you're not fully engaged strategically in every game (because you're concentrating on getting your mechanics better). I've found personally that after I built a fairly solid base of mechanics into my game play, it wasn't very difficult to tell myself "now I really need to start thinking about the game and what's going in and looking it at in a deeper level" because the mechanics aspect had become second nature, leaving me to concentrate on strategy easily while still maintaining my decent level of mechanics. When I tried to reverse my bad habits in respect to mechanics, I found it so difficult to force myself to look at the minimap for instance, because after playing so many games without paying that much attention to the minimap I was so used to not really looking at it.

I must admit this is also partly due to my favourtism towards mechanics (anti MBS ftw) but it really has worked for me.
ZerG~LegenD
Profile Blog Joined August 2007
Sweden1179 Posts
February 05 2008 07:34 GMT
#29
On February 05 2008 14:08 skyglow1 wrote:
Agree with everything except this:

Show nested quote +
Mechanics must come after game sense, or you will be controlling your units very quickly and accurately, but giving them the wrong commands. For example, many people can control a few speed Zerglings very well against a Marine and SCVs, but it takes someone with a good understanding of the game to realize when they should charge the Marine, when they should target SCVs and when they should retreat and target buildings.


I prefer to focus on mechanics first and get them top notch before attempting to start thinking about the strategical aspect of the game. My reasoning is that in every game you play with poor macro and poor micro etc, you are drilling in bad habits which I found were REALLY hard to change once I realised what I was doing wrong. On the other hand, it isn't as destructive when you're not fully engaged strategically in every game (because you're concentrating on getting your mechanics better). I've found personally that after I built a fairly solid base of mechanics into my game play, it wasn't very difficult to tell myself "now I really need to start thinking about the game and what's going in and looking it at in a deeper level" because the mechanics aspect had become second nature, leaving me to concentrate on strategy easily while still maintaining my decent level of mechanics. When I tried to reverse my bad habits in respect to mechanics, I found it so difficult to force myself to look at the minimap for instance, because after playing so many games without paying that much attention to the minimap I was so used to not really looking at it.

I must admit this is also partly due to my favourtism towards mechanics (anti MBS ftw) but it really has worked for me.

I've also argued that point a few times on gg.net. Once your mechanics are good enough you can start learning the game by trial and error, but if your mechanics are sloppy that just won't work - as you're just as likely to lost due to inferior multitask.

I know a guy who've played the game for alittle less than half a year now, and he's already one of the best tvz players in Sweden. I like to think that it's becouse he's got really great multitasking. Had he focused on learning the exact timing for barracks and different approaches to midgame and stuff like that instead I have no doubt he'd still be struggeling in pubbie games.
Even a broken clock is right twice a day
Shado.
Profile Joined February 2008
United States187 Posts
February 05 2008 09:20 GMT
#30
I play zerg and I have wondered how zerg pro-gamers mechanics work. How often do most Zerg progamers use the f2-4 keys. Do they hotkey all their hatches? Do they press 1sd, 2sd, 3sd, or do they just click 1 twice, and then manually click the hatcheries to build units? I've seen pro use the arrow key as well to move the screen around... do pro's still do this?

It's one thing to have a high APM but that doesn't mean you're always playing efficiently and quickly. How do pros approach their mechanics and what is the rational for the way they do things?
Biff The Understudy
Profile Blog Joined February 2008
France8202 Posts
February 05 2008 16:32 GMT
#31
Well, I loved this post, as I am myself coming from a very bad level to a decent playing theses days. There is just one point I don't really agree:

For what I have learnt, to play well, you have to play fast. And to play fast, you have to react almost instinctivly to what is happening to you. What BO you are using, what to do against muta harass, where to drop, which expension to attack, 99% of the game shouldn't even be thought, and done automatically.

It seems that pro gamer says taht they are playing with their intuition rather than hardcore thinking. A good player don't think, he reacts, and he is able to react quickly because he has been thinking before. While playing, it's a bit too late to think.

My 2 cents...
The fellow who is out to burn things up is the counterpart of the fool who thinks he can save the world. The world needs neither to be burned up nor to be saved. The world is, we are. Transients, if we buck it; here to stay if we accept it. ~H.Miller
Avius
Profile Joined October 2007
Iraq1796 Posts
February 05 2008 17:55 GMT
#32
Very good read and especially also entertaining!
aka. Samael
grobo
Profile Blog Joined February 2007
Japan6199 Posts
February 05 2008 18:55 GMT
#33
Indeed a very good read, hopefully i can finally learn something.

The two problems i know that i have are the following:

1) I have a habit of trying to do everything as fast as possible even though i don't want to and i KNOW that it's keeping me from playing properly, but it's damn near impossible to "slow" down now that i have been playing like this for so long. I get so caught up in microing my units that i completely forget about my base which results in me having zero units once the others die.

2) I'm braindead and can not for the life of me learn simple build orders, I've been watching replays and VODs since forever but trying to memorize a build seems useless for me, the second i start playing my mind goes blank and i automatically build some other shit that has NOTHING to do with the build order i was supposed to do.
We make signature, then defense it.
amorpheus
Profile Joined May 2007
Bulgaria2144 Posts
February 05 2008 18:56 GMT
#34
great read thanks!
Chill
Profile Blog Joined January 2005
Calgary26004 Posts
February 05 2008 19:03 GMT
#35
On February 05 2008 14:08 skyglow1 wrote:
Agree with everything except this:

Show nested quote +
Mechanics must come after game sense, or you will be controlling your units very quickly and accurately, but giving them the wrong commands. For example, many people can control a few speed Zerglings very well against a Marine and SCVs, but it takes someone with a good understanding of the game to realize when they should charge the Marine, when they should target SCVs and when they should retreat and target buildings.


I prefer to focus on mechanics first and get them top notch before attempting to start thinking about the strategical aspect of the game. My reasoning is that in every game you play with poor macro and poor micro etc, you are drilling in bad habits which I found were REALLY hard to change once I realised what I was doing wrong. On the other hand, it isn't as destructive when you're not fully engaged strategically in every game (because you're concentrating on getting your mechanics better). I've found personally that after I built a fairly solid base of mechanics into my game play, it wasn't very difficult to tell myself "now I really need to start thinking about the game and what's going in and looking it at in a deeper level" because the mechanics aspect had become second nature, leaving me to concentrate on strategy easily while still maintaining my decent level of mechanics. When I tried to reverse my bad habits in respect to mechanics, I found it so difficult to force myself to look at the minimap for instance, because after playing so many games without paying that much attention to the minimap I was so used to not really looking at it.

I must admit this is also partly due to my favourtism towards mechanics (anti MBS ftw) but it really has worked for me.


Hmm interesting point. I think I agree with you. My argument was written in the context of winning, but you will learn quicker with your method. I'll have to address this.

Thanks.
Moderator
Lemonwalrus
Profile Blog Joined August 2006
United States5465 Posts
February 05 2008 20:32 GMT
#36
On February 05 2008 18:20 Shado. wrote:
I've seen pro use the arrow key as well to move the screen around... do pro's still do this?

As far as I know the only pro that does this is Boxer. Although boxer is a great player, I think it is safe to say that, unless you feel really comfortable with it, there is really no reason to try to teach yourself this style of micro, as plenty of players have become great without it. As far as the rest of your post, I would assume it is difficult to choose an absolute truth for all progamers, or even just the top 10% or whatever, but imho, hotkeys are a good habit to get into. Having the ability to do such things as make units in your base while overseeing/microing a battle half the map away or vice verse becomes invaluable, especially as your APM and such things increase.
4AiUR
Profile Joined February 2008
3 Posts
February 05 2008 20:36 GMT
#37
many pros do that man, you can control 100% your units while u move the screen, for a lot of them is a must.
Lemonwalrus
Profile Blog Joined August 2006
United States5465 Posts
February 05 2008 20:49 GMT
#38
On February 06 2008 05:36 4AiUR wrote:
many pros do that man, you can control 100% your units while u move the screen, for a lot of them is a must.

I just did a little searching, and the general TL consensus over several threads is that boxer is the only one that does this, and it is because he sets his mouse scroll speed to the lowest setting.
We Are Here
Profile Blog Joined October 2006
Australia1810 Posts
February 05 2008 23:27 GMT
#39
On February 05 2008 14:08 skyglow1 wrote:
Agree with everything except this:

Show nested quote +
Mechanics must come after game sense, or you will be controlling your units very quickly and accurately, but giving them the wrong commands. For example, many people can control a few speed Zerglings very well against a Marine and SCVs, but it takes someone with a good understanding of the game to realize when they should charge the Marine, when they should target SCVs and when they should retreat and target buildings.


I prefer to focus on mechanics first and get them top notch before attempting to start thinking about the strategical aspect of the game. My reasoning is that in every game you play with poor macro and poor micro etc, you are drilling in bad habits which I found were REALLY hard to change once I realised what I was doing wrong. On the other hand, it isn't as destructive when you're not fully engaged strategically in every game (because you're concentrating on getting your mechanics better). I've found personally that after I built a fairly solid base of mechanics into my game play, it wasn't very difficult to tell myself "now I really need to start thinking about the game and what's going in and looking it at in a deeper level" because the mechanics aspect had become second nature, leaving me to concentrate on strategy easily while still maintaining my decent level of mechanics. When I tried to reverse my bad habits in respect to mechanics, I found it so difficult to force myself to look at the minimap for instance, because after playing so many games without paying that much attention to the minimap I was so used to not really looking at it.

I must admit this is also partly due to my favourtism towards mechanics (anti MBS ftw) but it really has worked for me.
yea i remember reading in an interview with the coach of pos(i think) why he choose july, he said because he was fast -meaning that he had good mechanics- and that although he wasnt a very good strategical player that he could learn that(strategy etc.) afterwards. hope that made sense
He who turns those around him into allies, possesses the most terrifying ability in the world.
Shado.
Profile Joined February 2008
United States187 Posts
February 07 2008 08:00 GMT
#40
Well, yeah I know to hotkey everything but I feel as if I don't know the finer points of things.

I used to just hotkey my hatches from 1-7 and important units like muta/lurker/scourges/defiliers 8-0. Now I'm experimenting with units 1-3, first 3 hatches 4-6, and then each additional main base, 7-9, with scourges usually at 0. I also set my F2-4 at the other person's base so I can move between battles and bases easier...

Also... does anyone use the spacebar? or does anyone use waypoints (using shift) for any reason other than scouting? and is it just me or does it seem impossible to use all your larve the second it comes out while microing a battle?
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