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Hello, I'll try and keep this quick and to the point. Like many of us, when the action gets hot and heated in SC we forget about a lot of things. Stim, upgrades, leg speed, the list goes on and on. I have a particularly bad habit of forgetting to put extra workers into gas geysers. We've all done it before and only notice when we're all of a sudden gas starved.
I was wondering if you guys could help me with an experiment. I want to see if it's possible using queuing commands to have an SCV create a Refinery and while he's doing that, grab 2 other SCVs and order them to continue to mine (2-4 cycles whatever the timing ends up being) and then go to gas.
I thought the idea might work based on the mine/return cargo trick players did before that go fixed. Does anyone feel like helping me calculate the number of trips (approximates are fine) and the sequence of keystrokes needed to make this work?
Obviously this is just a temporary fix and I should just pay more attention, but I'd like to do it because it'll 1) work for me and 2) I just want to see if it's possible. You never know, you might need the technique down the road.
Bonus points if you want to figure out the same techniques for Zerg and Protoss.
Thanks for any help!
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you can issue the commands mine and return cargo and using the shift command and then go to gas, but that takes a lot of effort. Taking 1 second to highlight 2-3 workers and right click a refinery is a lot faster.
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Just hotkey 2 workers, and when your refinery finishes you can just go like 3-*CLICK and there, workers on gas.
I do it if I know my refinery is going to finish during a battle (which is sometimes the case depending on your build), and you know that the extra nanosecond it takes to grab two workers is just too much.
In general though, you should really just learn to put workers on gas. It shouldn't take much time at all.
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I used a sticky note on my monitor to remind myself until I had a better habit of doing it. I don't know if there is anything other than jogging your memory and clicking over a couple workers. Much more economical with your time and actions.
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That sounds kind of difficult to set up a mine/return cargo cycle.
I do a similar thing though if the geyser is not quite complete when you select the 2 workers. Just do a move command to somewhere nearby and shift click on the gas. The idea is that while the scvs are doing the first move command it gives the geyser time to complete.
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What I do is hotkey my first 6 workers into two groups of 3 (on 7 and 8) and then once the refinery finishes I just call them up and send them in. It's easier then lassoing and deselecting workers. It also gives me something to do in the beginning and I enjoy binding probes for different things. I've got a fancy hotkey setup.
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Well, hypothetically, how many cycles of mining and returning cargo does it take before a refinery, etc. is finished?
I like the idea, honestly.
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Yeah this is actually kind of a cool idea. I'll throw down my gases real quick late-game and jump back to battle. If there was a number of trips I knew that equalled the length of gas being built I'd queue that at the same time. Yes, its inefficient but honestly I'm good at quick series of movements if their exactly the same every time, and that mistake of forgetting to put drones on gas (specifically my nat's double gas) has messed me up before.
As soon as I get home I'ma play with this til I get the timing right, half for the fun of it cause its a cool trick I'll post if I get the timing.
ps he didn't ask for advice on how to not forget or more efficiently assign the workers he asked if anyone knew the timing for a specific trick! thx OP good thought
O I'm zerg btw
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On December 09 2010 06:51 indigoawareness wrote:
What I do is hotkey my first 6 workers into two groups of 3 (on 7 and 8) and then once the refinery finishes I just call them up and send them in. It's easier then lassoing and deselecting workers. It also gives me something to do in the beginning and I enjoy binding probes for different things. I've got a fancy hotkey setup.
This is brilliant.
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I just check on my refineries while they're building and when they reach 75-80% I select two SCVs, shift click them to my CC/OC first (so they'll finish mining first) and then click them to the refinery.
They'll go in when its up and not lose any minerals.
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Calgary25986 Posts
If you really need a trick for this, just send 3 works to sit on the gas right when you build it. You'll lose a small amount of income, but it's inconsequential if you're at the level where you need a trick to get your workers into gas.
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The simple way to quickly saturate is to hotkey or box select two workers, right click your refinery, and quickly press "C" for return cargo. Workers with minerals will return to the CC THEN start mining gas, workers with nothing will mine gas normally.
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Requires too much apm, if mid game late game and you dont have the nessesary multitasking to remember to put guys on gas just put them on right when u make ur refinery and they will mine when its finished building
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The cycling just seems like a lot of wasted apm and screen focus on one spot that it doesn't need to be in the early game for a tiny little trick that won't really affect your play much in the long run. Not to mention, you most likely would have to do it for each individual worker, and even then the cycles might not be specific if an SCV interrupts mining and causes the queued one to bounce around mineral patches. Instead of hotkeying workers, just hotkey the geyser and check the completion time on it with your regular tabbing through of your keys while you scout with an svb or poke with marines. Doing that will improve your play more than some fancy click-intensive trick that can be accomplished in much much simpler ways.
I hotkey my assimilator to 6 once I start it (since nexus is 5, that is just what is convenient for me, doesn't have to be 6), adding to my hotkey rotation. I would think that with the coming 1.2 patch that this bind could even further benefit you when it displays the number of workers in each gas. Just sharing my methods with you, since you have the same problem I used to have.
I like the idea of the hotkeying initial 6 workers. I normally just grab 3 harvesters that have just returned minerals and avoid ones that have them in their hands, but your way would eliminate the need to try and pick through the group of probes without grabbing too few or too many. Just have to be careful not to scout with them, though, or else one of your gases will be lonely 
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On December 09 2010 07:05 Chill wrote:
If you really need a trick for this, just send 3 works to sit on the gas right when you build it. You'll lose a small amount of income, but it's inconsequential if you're at the level where you need a trick to get your workers into gas.
So true.
And the next patch will help this situation since you'll be able to see the number of harvesters assigned when you click on gas. I've played a bit on the PTR server and it is actually very reassuring to see that "3" 
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On December 09 2010 06:51 indigoawareness wrote:
What I do is hotkey my first 6 workers into two groups of 3 (on 7 and 8) and then once the refinery finishes I just call them up and send them in. It's easier then lassoing and deselecting workers. It also gives me something to do in the beginning and I enjoy binding probes for different things. I've got a fancy hotkey setup.
This is a great idea. I'm going to start using that immediately
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The best is when you hear the sound of you Refinery finishes you put workers in it. I guess it takes some times to recognize all game sounds.
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On December 09 2010 07:45 Pgbz wrote:
The best is when you hear the sound of you Refinery finishes you put workers in it. I guess it takes some times to recognize all game sounds.
This. Train yourself on the sounds and make sure you turn the music volume low and the sound effects volume high.
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would have to agree with majority, its too much work for a simple task. Still cool to have an original (most likely) thought about sc2!
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All great suggestions. I agree that it's a lot of extra APM for something I should probably just learn to do. Until I get more proficient at remembering, I'll take the mineral hit and have two extra workers taking a smoke break next to the geyser. The 30-40 mineral slowdown is worth the peace of mind that the gas will be there when I need it.
Still wonder if it could be done though...
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EPT
