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High Platinum trying to help out 2 bronze/silver buddies and get better myself.
I am looking for specific SC2 activities beyond playing matches that would help improve people's SC2 abilities. Analogous to baseball's batting practice or simply running to get faster in fielding / base running. Simply playing game after game of baseball is not the best method to get better.
I used the multitasking trainer, but they cannot even come close to finishing the very easy setting.
Since my friends need better mechanics and macro I created these two drills against a very easy AI:
- 7 minute drill. T/P: 1 base and constantly produce workers until 7 minutes in. Never get supploy blocked. Your main should be fully saturated. The idea is that its all about "probes & pylons" or "SCVs & depots". Harder exercises - add attacking units and/or have another Nexus/CC finish before the 7 minutes is done.
- 200 food. Build up to 200 food as quickly as possible, must have 60 workers and at least some Tier 2 units. Try this with 1 base only, 2 bases and 3 bases.
- Watch your replays and notice if you ever have a lag in making workers, attacking units or get supply blocked.
What practice drills do you use or any feedback on my drills?
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instead of general things like "200 food" and "7 minutes," I just do a build that I do a lot against ai or something and try to hit a certain food by a certain time. Like when I used to 1 gate FE I'd try to get over 65 food by the 8 minute mark with a 4:50 expo.
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Ladder and watching your replays is the best way to improve, period. Your bronze friends are gonna be mad when they are happily at their 7 minute checkpoint vs a real person only to find out their opponent has proxy'd 5 barracks that have never been discovered because they dont scout because computers are predictable.
You play how you practice. That's the problem with those kinds of drills. They aren't realistic at all, and the hardest part about learning to macro for new players is the fact that somebody is attacking them while they are trying to remember everything. Multitasking is the biggest hurdle to overcome for sc2 and you don't learn it when you remove risk from everything else you do.
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For someone who is not extremely self-driven (because I believe anyone who is can get out of Bronze/Silver with blind builds and macro/proper response to basic strategies) the "drills" are perhaps a neat way to challenge the individuals -- I like the idea of something basic that you build onto.
like > Stage 1: Build SCVs for 7 minutes, no stops in production or supply block
then > Stage 2: Build SCVs for 7 minutes, same as 1, but never exceed 250 minerals
and slowly add things on until you they've mastered a standard opening, and can build tech buildings within it and not faulter on the basics -- once someone can do this, they are capable of exploring "strategy" and no longer have to actively THINK about the game basics as they are now formed as habits.
Basically, I think pick 1 small thing, and work on that exclusively until it does not need to be thought about, then, and ONLY then move onto the next logical and only slightly more involved 'thing'
So like each game focus on:
- Constant worker prod.
- Proper waypoints
- Not getting supply blocked
- Keeping Minerals/Gas below a point
- Deciding on a hotkey for x unit/structure, and using it
- Strategic building placement
- etc...
Basically, don't frustrate with focusing on more than one concept at a time until it's second nature.
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I've been doing a 'drill' for fun and for practice for a while. This is a mechanical 'drill' but one thing I did that increased my accuracy and speed a lot on my keyboard hand is to do alternating series, so type this:
1 2 1 3 1 4 1 5 1 4 1 3 1 3 1 2 1 2 1 3 1 4 1 5 1 4 1 3 . . . . .
All with your left hand, using the appropriate fingers (for me, ring for 1, middle for 2, index for 3-5). Then, once you're good, add 6:
1 2 1 3 1 4 1 5 1 6 1 5 1 4 1 3 1 2 1 3 1 4 1 5 1 6 1 5 1 4 1 3 . . . .
The idea came from musical scales where you would play the notes in that order as a dexterity builder. You can do this in-game after you send your SCVs to mine, or whatever. I just tap it out and now I can run a series 1-6 back down to 1 in under a second, and it sounds awesome if you've got a clickity keyboard and is pretty fun.
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Best drill to use ever.
PLAY SLOW!!!
Have your buddies play as slow as possible without making a single mistake. Once they can perfect their build, then have them write down any times where it was extremely close for them making a mistake. If they are almost making mistakes playing slow, thats when they'll make mistakes playing fast.
Once thats done then get them to use all 10 hotkeys. Of course they don't have to use all of them in game, but getting used to such hotkeys like 67890 will help them later if they find that they cannot play "fast" enough because they don't use hotkeys. Tell them to use their hotkeys for their liking and whatever is comfortable for them.
Once they can use their hotkeys get them to play slow again and to perfect their build with using all 10 hotkeys or at least 7.
Once they can do their build using at least 7 hotkeys tell them to play the build as fast as possible without:
Stopping their mouse
Scrolling
Making any mistakes in their build.
Make sure they:
Prioritizing their eyes on their minimap, money, food, production (bottom of the screen), and main screen respectfully.
Maintain a solid APM, doesn't have to be fast, but they should go for A apm and try to stick with it. Obviously going faster isn't a bad thing, but if you shoot for 60 and you are constantly hitting 20-30 then you need to step it up. Likewise if you shoot for 200 and you only hit 100 you need to realize that 200 is pointless speed. A good 60-80 apm will suffice.
If the player fails any of these points start over again, depending on the failure. If he fails to maintain a solid APM, start over with playing the build as slow as possible, but do it like 20 times. The more repetative it is, the more likely he will be able to just "wait" on the next thing to happen. The more you "wait" the more you realize you can use that time to stare at your minimap.
If he fails to do his build perfectly start at doing it slowly again.
If he stops his mouse, just restart the last drill again, if it happens way to often. Tell him to do the first step again but to only use his mouse. No hotkeys period. Then do the 7+ hotkey drill with only your mouse. Then do the third drill with only your mouse. It is extremely difficult to play like that so make sure you do all 3 over again normally so that no bad habits are learned.
If you spectate in his first person view and you notice the screen moving slightly with scrolling start the third exercise over again. If he accidently scrolls at the start of the game when nothings happening thats fine. But if he scrolls to set rally points or to select units start over. This by far will be the one thing you will restart most on. Remember SCII has a stupid smart pan camera so it might look like he is scrolling, don't pay attention to a "scroll" if it is cross map, there is a good chance he clicked the mini map.
This one is hardest to achieve because are brains say no.
Constantly look at the minimap, money, food, production, main screen respectively. I would say one good way to do this, is to have him play against a zerg who send in fast air units into his base. If he is watching his minimap he will be able to see it right away. If he is looking at his main screen he won't. Ask the zerg player to not engage his base, but to just fly on the outskirts of the FOW, just enough for him to see buildings. SPectate your buddy to see if he notices. An instantaneous reaction means he is watching the minimap, a slight delay (a few milliseconds) might mean he was focusing on money or food or building something. Use your good judgement for what he is doing. If there is even 1 second delay that means he was watching the main screen and his peripheral vision saw the units.
Also make sure that whenever he notices the dots to send all his AA units, ask him to hotkey those separately. Just send them towards the dots and if they go away to return back to their spots. If there was more than a few mutalisk, or overseers leave a good chunk near the edge and close to your ramp.
If you can successfully complete the 3 drills and maintain the added difficulties, the only thing left is to make 3 different builds for the 3 races and 1 generic build that can transition into all 3 if you are against random.
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I'd suggest just practicing late game management, 3-4 bases with full production capabilities. This is where you will learn the most, in my opinion.
Just by playing normally, you will quickly get the first several minutes down easily. However, you won't get nearly as much playtime in the end game, where your actual gameplay is likely the weakest.
Things like practicing APM, practicing a build meticulously, will not help you improve. You will make mistakes, plain and simple. This is especially true in Platinum/Bronze/Silver, etc. But you want to be as consistent as possible.
As previously mentioned, if you feel a particular area of your game is weak, try to find a custom map for it. IE: MnM micro.
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On February 18 2011 03:32 Eknoid4 wrote:
Ladder and watching your replays is the best way to improve, period. Your bronze friends are gonna be mad when they are happily at their 7 minute checkpoint vs a real person only to find out their opponent has proxy'd 5 barracks that have never been discovered because they dont scout because computers are predictable.
You play how you practice. That's the problem with those kinds of drills. They aren't realistic at all, and the hardest part about learning to macro for new players is the fact that somebody is attacking them while they are trying to remember everything. Multitasking is the biggest hurdle to overcome for sc2 and you don't learn it when you remove risk from everything else you do.
I completely disagree. You have to realize what type of people you are working with here -- people with little or no experience with starcraft, or even RTS in general. Of course the drills are not realistic, but that doesn't mean they can't help you improve. Learning the basics is much harder when you have to worry about some noob canon rushing you. First, learn how to constantly produce probes and pylons, then try it against a real opponent.
I can't count the number of pros I've heard say, "Practice your BOs against an easy comp." That's not realistic, so according to your logic it is worthless?.....
The idea is that you focus on something simple at first and then, once you got that down, take it to the next level.
OP, do you mind linking the particular multitasker you are using?
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For bronze/silver a good drill is to play against two medium computer opponents while fast expanding. This might not be something they can do right away (start with one AI if need be) but something to work towards. This will get them "rushed" at about 7:00 minutes by a force of ~10 units. It's not that far off from many of the standard ladder pushes that happen and if you can afford an expansion and forces to defend you have a good idea how to handle early pressure and economy which is the biggest issue for newer players. Though the one caveat is you can't "cheat" and do things like turtle or cannon rush.
Once they survive the first push it should be easy to macro up and crush the AI which also helps work on macro.
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I've wondered if playing without mouse scroll enabled will force you to use hotkeys more (primarily the F-keys...)? I havn't tested it but it's something I've wondered.
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interesting idea to play without using mouse scroll. is this a legit way to practice?
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once you get beyond basic build orders i'd highly recommend checking out "Micro Management Test" on NA and "Unit Test Map 1v1" on EU... excellent for micro practice against a friend/teammate because it allows you to be in any situation at any time, and work on micro (marine vs bane is popular, blink stalk vs blink stalk, roach v roach, etc)
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If you haven't already, PLEASE show them Day9 daily #252. Possibly the most helpful and educational daily ever to be made.
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On February 18 2011 03:31 Alejandrisha wrote:
instead of general things like "200 food" and "7 minutes," I just do a build that I do a lot against ai or something and try to hit a certain food by a certain time. Like when I used to 1 gate FE I'd try to get over 65 food by the 8 minute mark with a 4:50 expo.
If you're not at a level where your macro is muscle-memory, then you should be playing on single player with no opponents just perfecting your build order and making sure that you don't need to think about building workers or units or supply - that it just happens smoothly and subconsciously. It's much easier to see how extreme certain problems are if you isolate them. In a normal game, you can make excuses for yourself (such as "I was busy defending against a drop" or "I was too busy scouting him" or "I had to micro my army.") But on single player, when you're just focusing on your build order, there are no excuses for subpar macro, and it really helps you get a sense of what you need to be doing and when (the frequency that you need to be building workers and supply, how many production facilities you can support off of X bases, how to effectively use your hotkeys, etc.)
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I'm in a similar situation as you, OP, Diamond with gold friends. I highly suggest you watch their replays and find one or two big mistakes they are making.
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Watch Day9 daily #252 it's all about simple mechanical things that can help you. He also has some follow-ups with it on the next two newbie tuesdays after.
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I like the 200 food test. As zerg, this means focusing on getting my larvae injections and overlord timing correct, while spending money on units/tech as I usually do in a real game.
One thing I can point out to make it even better: run the game in the practice vs AI mode. This way, you can save the game at certain checkpoints, play out the next minute or two, then reload to repeat the same thing (but with improvement). So let's say that I want to improve my macro while attacking, you could set up a game against the AI, save the game just before you engage, then fight the battle while attempting to make units. After the battle, take a look at your food, then reload the save. Do it again, see if you do better. If necessary, so you can also slow down the speed in this mode so you can figure out what are all the necessary actions are, which you can then speed up in later
The idea here is to repeat these key situations where your macro fails, so you can really focus on them and really learn to do them properly. Of course, the AI is not an ideal opponent, so this type of practice ends up being more useful for working on macro, but most players need work on that anyways. If saving was possible with multiplayer games, I think the practice possibilities would be amazing.
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Daily #208 is another good one. It is his live coaching session with DJWheat.
http://day9tv.blip.tv/file/4321552/
I really like Day9's constant focus on "what's next?" New players may not be able to multitask and observe nearly as well, but if they can get in the habit of checking money, checking supply, checking the minimap and responding, they'll be on the right track.
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Thanks for all of the feedback.
We have watched their replays together and they can point out the areas to improve: "I was supply blocked here", "I always stop making workers too early", "I didn't scout or take the x-towers after the initial scout", but where's the specific drill to fix an issue? Its like saying "you dropped the fly ball" in baseball so throw 100 balls straight up in the air and catch them.
The idea of practicing "musical scales" for "the tap" as day9 calls it is definately something they could use.
I like the idea of "eye training" to look at mini-map, food and production buildings. I wish I could black-out the main part of the screen every few seconds so they have to look somwhere else.
Also, I wish there was an audible "ding" every 10 - 15 seconds to remind them to build a supply structure. My hands actually get twitchy watching them play... my muscle memory knows it has been too long since a supply depot has gone down.
The multitasking trainer is here:
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=124983
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EPT
