EPTSo the question is simple: What are effective ways to increase minimap awareness so that our eyes are constantly glancing at the bottom left corner? If you've developped a technique or a routine or anything really, please share it.
[Q] How to increase minimap awareness?
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leb
Canada126 Posts
So the question is simple: What are effective ways to increase minimap awareness so that our eyes are constantly glancing at the bottom left corner? If you've developped a technique or a routine or anything really, please share it. | ||
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TheRealzz
150 Posts
MMO - MiniMap / Money Low / Overlords | ||
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DanceSC
United States751 Posts
I got in the routine of flipping through my hotkeys back in bw (1a2a3a4z5z6d7d8d9p0p) that I could buy units, train probes, and attack with my army with my screen looking at the same spot (typically my nexus). With the touchpad you are forced to play off the minimap because you can't scroll around the page fast enough to be productive. Thats my effective way, it may be different for everyone else. | ||
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SgtRock
Canada93 Posts
Just like any other sport, drilling is important, not just playing. | ||
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Tomtaietot
Romania57 Posts
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Azn_Christian
United States153 Posts
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OriginalBeast
United States709 Posts
However, if your like a gold/plat/diamond (I assume masters are on top of their shit) mini map watching will come naturally as you learn your builds. Like when I started going colossus in PvZ I realized that scouting and placing pylons give me vision to watch for mutas and then I stopped becoming worried about mutas because I learned that minimap vision fixed that problem. So like it came naturally as I got better is what I'm trying to say. | ||
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leb
Canada126 Posts
On February 20 2011 14:42 DanceSC wrote: If you have a laptop play without a mouse..(touchpad) Thats what I did back in bw days and that forced me to use the hotkeys more, increased my apm, and utilize the f2-f3-f4 + shift commands. When you go back to the mouse your selecting will be much quicker, You will find that the time it took you to select an entire group with a touchpad, you can accomplish 20x faster with a mouse, and in your mind it frees up space. I got in the routine of flipping through my hotkeys back in bw (1a2a3a4z5z6d7d8d9p0p) that I could buy units, train probes, and attack with my army with my screen looking at the same spot (typically my nexus). With the touchpad you are forced to play off the minimap because you can't scroll around the page fast enough to be productive. Thats my effective way, it may be different for everyone else. You played broodwar with the touchpad? That is amazing... But what you're saying about being forced to use the minimap makes sense, I'll give it a try. thanks! | ||
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leb
Canada126 Posts
On February 20 2011 14:46 SgtRock wrote: Day[9] talked about a bunch of Korean progamers that would move their head to look at the minimap. This physical cue is a great thing to always use, just like 'the tap.' And it should be used just as often. Play a few games vs an AI opponent and ONLY focus on these things, forget build orders or spending every mineral as it comes in, just focus on this physical movement. After a few games of drilling this, it will become easier to use in a ladder match. Just like any other sport, drilling is important, not just playing. Good idea. When I wanted to work on my creep spread and overlord timings that's what I did, I don't see why it wouldn't work for the minimap too. | ||
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Zorten
United States16 Posts
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ZarMulix
United States77 Posts
There are two occasions in which I monitor the minimap directly, and that's when I'm looking for holes in my overlord vision, and when I see an enemy unit and don't know exactly where it is. That's when I get paranoid about drops and attacks so just the idea of not dying makes me look at the minimap because there's no other way to get information. Otherwise movement in general should attract your eye unless you're focused on what's onscreen. I guess just being comfortable with hotkeys and your build order helps free up some pockets of time and processing power to try and be more tactically aware. | ||
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Kornholi0
Canada634 Posts
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Dhalphir
Australia1305 Posts
On February 20 2011 15:53 ZarMulix wrote: I guess just being comfortable with hotkeys and your build order helps free up some pockets of time and processing power to try and be more tactically aware. This is a big one. If you're still struggling with basic hotkeys and being confident in your build, you really don't have the time to spare to watch the minimap, and other, more important things will suffer if you try. Focus on getting your normal gameplay (building things on time, keeping up with production, etc) down to the point of automation. You'll then find that watching the minimap will come naturally and be much easier as you'll have periods where your mind isn't actively thinking about anything, your hands are doing things by themselves. | ||
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Asparagus
United States269 Posts
On February 20 2011 14:58 OriginalBeast wrote: Like if your a bronze player you honestly don't need to look at the minimap, even though day9 says it was a good thing to do. You need to remember day9 was a professional gamer, has spent literally years of his life playing the game. To take ALL of his advice as a bronze league player is going to be too much. However, if your like a gold/plat/diamond (I assume masters are on top of their shit) mini map watching will come naturally as you learn your builds. Like when I started going colossus in PvZ I realized that scouting and placing pylons give me vision to watch for mutas and then I stopped becoming worried about mutas because I learned that minimap vision fixed that problem. So like it came naturally as I got better is what I'm trying to say. Sure it was only pylon placement and map vision that helped your pvz there pal? | ||
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Yoshi Kirishima
United States10340 Posts
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awwnuts07
United States621 Posts
On February 20 2011 14:58 OriginalBeast wrote: Like if your a bronze player you honestly don't need to look at the minimap, even though day9 says it was a good thing to do. You need to remember day9 was a professional gamer, has spent literally years of his life playing the game. To take ALL of his advice as a bronze league player is going to be too much. However, if your like a gold/plat/diamond (I assume masters are on top of their shit) mini map watching will come naturally as you learn your builds. Like when I started going colossus in PvZ I realized that scouting and placing pylons give me vision to watch for mutas and then I stopped becoming worried about mutas because I learned that minimap vision fixed that problem. So like it came naturally as I got better is what I'm trying to say. Actually, I would argue it is better to start practicing good mechanics while you are a bronze. Wouldn't it be harder to learn good mechanics after you've developed bad habits? It may cost you a few games to before you start getting comfortable using them, but bronzes have nowhere to go but up, right? What's Blizzard gonna do? Demote us to "Plastic" league? That being said, I'm a bronze and I've recently been trying to incorporate the skills Day9 mentioned in his newbie tuesdays. I'm not gonna lie, it was slow and arduous at first, since as a new player I still have to think a lot about the things that need doing, but I can already see the improvements. Within a couple of weeks I went from 40-45 apm to 60-65 apm and I keep getting faster the more I practice. I now send scouts out regularly because the constant looking at/clicking on the minimap has made me realize how blind I am without units running around and most of all, I don't get caught by surprise very often anymore. Before, I would be holding xelnaga towers, but I would still get hit with a huge attack since I never looked at the minimap. The easiest way I've found at incorporating the minimap into my game is to tie it to an action. For example: -I build_x(building, unit, ect) I look at my minimap, look at my supply -I send out a scout. I look at the minimap, left click on the part I want it to go, look back at the main screen to choose a very specific place, look back at my minimap, look at my supply. This way, the minimap is always being looked at every once in a while. | ||
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parn
France296 Posts
You start playing a game at 2pm knowing you have an appointement scheduled at 2:15pm (you need to be precise, this is important). Then you put a clock at the bottom left of your screen so you'll need to check it a lot. While you're checking the time, you can also check the minimap! Hope it helped  | ||
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GleefulGlee
38 Posts
On February 20 2011 14:42 DanceSC wrote: If you have a laptop play without a mouse..(touchpad) Thats what I did back in bw days and that forced me to use the hotkeys more, increased my apm, and utilize the f2-f3-f4 + shift commands. When you go back to the mouse your selecting will be much quicker, You will find that the time it took you to select an entire group with a touchpad, you can accomplish 20x faster with a mouse, and in your mind it frees up space. I got in the routine of flipping through my hotkeys back in bw (1a2a3a4z5z6d7d8d9p0p) that I could buy units, train probes, and attack with my army with my screen looking at the same spot (typically my nexus). With the touchpad you are forced to play off the minimap because you can't scroll around the page fast enough to be productive. Thats my effective way, it may be different for everyone else. Tried it and cost me 4 ladder games  lol and yes it improved my apm Thank you  | ||
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Deja Thoris
South Africa646 Posts
On February 20 2011 14:58 OriginalBeast wrote: Like if your a bronze player you honestly don't need to look at the minimap, even though day9 says it was a good thing to do. You need to remember day9 was a professional gamer, has spent literally years of his life playing the game. To take ALL of his advice as a bronze league player is going to be too much. However, if your like a gold/plat/diamond (I assume masters are on top of their shit) mini map watching will come naturally as you learn your builds. Like when I started going colossus in PvZ I realized that scouting and placing pylons give me vision to watch for mutas and then I stopped becoming worried about mutas because I learned that minimap vision fixed that problem. So like it came naturally as I got better is what I'm trying to say. Your advice is poor. Bronze players lose because they don't look at the minimap and have an argwtf moment when their scv's are suddenly being raped and they didn't see it coming. If people take your advice and get promoted with ingrained bad habits how are they suddenly meant to "start" looking at the minimap when they hit gold? Not going to happen unless the good habit is formed early and reinforced. Anyway, want minimap vision to become a habit, stick a postit note at the bottom left of your screen with a bigass arrow on it. The visual cue will reming you plenty. | ||
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leb
Canada126 Posts
As for when I'm playing online, I've started making it a point to always look at the minimap and do as much as possible through it, and I do feel like it's been helping me. Only issue I'm having is that whenever battles are happening and I need to position my army/spawn larva/grab reinforcements, my eyes stray away from the minimap and that's when it's most important... especially against say terrans who like to drop 2 medivacs worth of marines in your main while engaging your fourth :/ | ||
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SidianTheBard
United States2474 Posts
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Zemik
2 Posts
Got the watch towers- lookin at the minimap, see red dots, click minimap, glance at mainscreen,little cheeky marine push ok cool time to warp in some zelots/sentries or whatever. Got watch towers- looking at main screen, my wall in is tight I have placed that pylon well, I am making workers, I see the warp tech bar is nearly done, my units seem quite happy standing there...oh oh oh that would be a marine push, they are up my ramp, I am dead. Like I say I am only bronze so I am no expert but, you get a 200/200 army an a-move them badboys into his base, look at the minimap, you can see who is winning based on the dots you see. if you see that the green dots are winning, glance at the screen and a-move further into his base, if it is 50/50 glance at the screen, warp in some units(I am P) and a-move them in. If you are losing either retreat or gg depending on how badly your little green dots are getting boned. The alternative is to stare at the main screen and glance at the minimap, I have tried this with the following result: ok main screen moving my guys round it is all good, warpin some stuff in, checking my money checking my supply, lookin at the main screen again, glance at the minimap, shit that is lots of red dots killing my workers f2 1a cli-oh wait I lost my whole income gg. I am sure everyone has been there and we know losing everything you got to a drop just feels shitty, losing because they out macro you feels better. I guess what I am trying to say is the minimap tells me more about the game than the main screen, and the warning you get from it can change games from a roflstomp to a close defeat or even a win. | ||
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PeaNuT_T
Sweden326 Posts
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smacky
United States108 Posts
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Crackensan
United States479 Posts
EDIT: Expanded: Essentially, you want to get used to looking at your minimap when you're either not looking at the main screen (which should be little anyway) or at your supply/money. Tasks that are automated to a high level (queen injects for example) you can be staring at your minimap. Moving overlords, use your minimap, ect, ect. With good overlord placement, you should be relying on your minimap as an Early Warning System, like Terran's Sensor Towers or 'toss with their Observers. It will give you more time to react to incoming threats. | ||
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Jayrod
1820 Posts
Three things: 1) play with no sound for ~20 games and/or 2) Find a good Terran practice partner and do the same expansion build every game. While getting comfortable with a build you will start to have some focus you can shift away from concentrating on your macro towards your overall awareness. and 3) You need to get yourself as much map vision at all times possible. I don't care how good you are at checking the minimap, the more reaction time the better and you can rest assured pros outright lose to drops because of lack of map control at times. That's why you see them doing things that lower level and even some master level people don't do, which is build outward, and place spotter buildings and units that they fully expect to lose in the interest of not getting caught off guard. The more time you give yourself... the more stuff you'll catch.. and the better you'll get overall at watching the minimap. I just had a weird thought, but about the left2die map? Some of its characteristics might provide a more interesting way to bouncing around the minimap and catching things. | ||
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Chinesewonder
Canada354 Posts
On February 20 2011 13:56 leb wrote: We all know how important it is to constantly keep an eye on the minimap. It allows us those precious extra seconds to deal with whatever's coming our way and often times means the difference between winning and losing a battle. Lately I've found that this is an area in my game where I'm struggling, and it has cost me multiple games. I've tried to keep it in mind as something that I need to constantly cycle through, like ressources and supply, but as soon as anything of interest is happening on the screen, my eyes drift away and I make critical mistakes. So the question is simple: What are effective ways to increase minimap awareness so that our eyes are constantly glancing at the bottom left corner? If you've developped a technique or a routine or anything really, please share it. Well as a zerg I have overlords spread everywhere which helps alot. I've noticed that placing cheap units at key points makes it easier to catch harassing units or pushes. For example I place 1-3 zerglings at key points, if my opponents army moves out, they attack the ling and I know instantly whats going on. | ||
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Bibbit
Canada5377 Posts
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Moja
United States313 Posts
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salehonasi
United States87 Posts
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Amaterasu1234
United States317 Posts
After losing a few games to drops, you'll understand how ridiculous it is to not pay attention to that minimap. At least, that's how I learned how to use it... | ||
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snowroller1
99 Posts
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Bxk
United States53 Posts
Basically, the more stuff you force yourself to do via the minimap, the more you will pay attention to the minimap. Also, in using the minimap for lots of things, you might realize using the minimap for some things are awesome ("I can shift click the Xel'naga Tower and then shift click his base via the minimap with my initial scouting unit" or "I can easily spread newly spawned Overlords by just right clicking the minimap" might be some examples) Your food count and your minimap are like the mirrors and gauges in your car. It's a good, safe practice to constantly be checking them, so you are more aware of what's going on around you. Really, anything that isn't on your main screen is a blind spot, and the minimap fixes that for you. Edit: There are also times in matches where you know that paying attention to your minimap might lead to a game-winning play by you. For example, in TvT, if you scan your opponent, and see a lack of marines, some hellions sitting around, and him building a Starport, the odds of you getting dropped by blue-flame Hellions is pretty high, and if you can snipe the Medivac before it unloads, you will end up ahead. Or, if you set up a contain on your first push in his natural, and he hasn't tried to break the contain for a minute or two, he's probably planning on making a big drop in your main to make up for the fact that he can't expand. Certain situations arise where watching the minimap like a hawk is the most important thing you should be doing at the time, and the more often you notice these key moments, react properly, and win games from it, the more you will recognize how important paying attention to the minimap is. You'll set yourself in this positive-feedback loop where you reward yourself for paying attention the the minimap by winning games, you'll realize how important the minimap is, and you'll win even more games by paying more attention to the minimap. I might be digging too deep into the psychological aspect of watching the minimap, but it is true to an extent. The more times you win games by knowing when to stare at the minimap, the more you will end up staring at the minimap :D | ||
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Shew
United States460 Posts
I think there are a few factors to minimap awareness. There is eye movement, color scheme, monitor size, monitor distance from you, and just overall awareness that you should always be checking it. Eye movement is just how fast you move your eyes while you play, like apm. Color scheme is what colors you use for yourself/your opponent. U can make it so they're always red, you're always green etc. This i find helpful because red will show up a lot better on a map like xel naga (light blue minimap) than would a blue or green dot. Often times i may be looking at my minerals and see the smallest red dot of my opponent's banshee go intomy main because it'd red on a blue-toned map. In PvT, spotter pylons placed at common drop paths can make or break a game for protoses, and i have a very easy time seeing that small red dot. Monitor size is self explanatory, and relates to monitor distance from you. Having a 35" monitor will make you move your eyes a lot more but everything is bigger. The opposite is true for a 20" monitor, things are smaller but you can see more with peripherals etc. I prefer smaller monitors. I have a deep desk, yet my 20" monitor sits very close to me. What it lacks in size i manipulate by putting it closer to me. I have a very easy time seeing everything and not haing to move my eyes around my monitor much. Perhaps when i get home today i'll take a picture and upload it. And also your skill level will change how you use the minimap. Obviously lower skilled players will see diffiulty in constantly using the minimap, but it becomes more and more of a necessity the higher your skill goes. Hope this helps these are my opinions of things to account for when thinking about minimap awareness. | ||
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Coraz
United States252 Posts
he cursed me in chat during the game lol something like this always happens, after a year he can macro 1000 tanks out but I still win because I have better map control and map awareness every time the key is that staring at the main screen is completely useless unless you're fighting enemy units 1edit: A good way to scout is to have a worker or a quick unit shift-a clicked all over the map so as it runs around you can see the movement on the minimap in your peripheral vision and you will be able to notice mysterious red dots moving along the sides of the maps (drops) or you will take out scouting enemy units with hellions or lings or whatever - and it takes no effort to take a marine and tell him to attack willy nilly all over the minimap | ||
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Sv1
United States204 Posts
On April 16 2011 00:23 Jayrod wrote: 2) Find a good Terran practice partner and do the same expansion build every game. While getting comfortable with a build you will start to have some focus you can shift away from concentrating on your macro towards your overall awareness. Jerk, early expo is the only way that terran can win otherwise! -- On the topic however, I'm of the camp that you can't just train it with a few games. I'm in "the arts" as a profession as my dad (who has no idea what I do) would say. My job is about observing details, so more often than not, I don't even look at the minimap unless necessary (edit: because I'm seeing it with peripheral vision). Years of art analysis and visual effects/animation work have ingrained oberservation in me, I can't watch commercials or movies without looking away from the subject at other things in the scene to see how important they are (everything you see is pre-meditated and not just thrown in there). But that doesn't mean you can't be good at it. You may not hold the high scores on numerous Photohunt machines in the Philadelphia bar scene like me, but you can still be pretty good. If you don't look at your minerals, do it, once you do that immediately tell your brain to look at the minimap, this happens probably about 100 times a game. Play enough games and your muscle memory will used to checking even not when looking at the minerals. One thing that might be overlooked is processing your scouting information, if you are against a zerg player and see a spire, you'll probably want to make sure you're scanning the edges of your base, same goes for medivacs, warp prisms, and roaches with tunnel claws. These are triggers that *should* make you say "I gotta keep an eye out for this junk" Changing your colors to green/red also helps, certain maps have better contrast/complimentary colors to allow this, Shakuras/Typhon for instance is great for recognizing things like this. If you are specifically talking about games lost to drops, consider building your base out more expansively. Decrease the fog that's in your base, and maybe even place units in the path of travel most players might commonly use. Things like DTs however are another story, for some reason I think that with blizzard's current programming, DTs will get about 4-5 shots (or more it feels), before both the sound alert and the minimap ping will sound if you aren't looking. For some reason I think it likes to play through every "unit is complete" and "structure complete" before eventually getting to that. | ||
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Coraz
United States252 Posts
On April 16 2011 01:41 Sv1 wrote: But that doesn't mean you can't be good at it. You may not hold the high scores on numerous Photohunt machines in the Philadelphia bar scene like me, but you can still be pretty good. you must be the famous ASS on all bar games! | ||
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Clamps
66 Posts
Don't stare at your units... pervert! | ||
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Alejandrisha
United States6565 Posts
Basically, the better your mechanics get the less time you'll have to spend doing menial stuff and more time looking at the minimap | ||
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Durp
Canada3117 Posts
On February 20 2011 14:58 OriginalBeast wrote: Like if your a bronze player you honestly don't need to look at the minimap, even though day9 says it was a good thing to do. You need to remember day9 was a professional gamer, has spent literally years of his life playing the game. To take ALL of his advice as a bronze league player is going to be too much. However, if your like a gold/plat/diamond (I assume masters are on top of their shit) mini map watching will come naturally as you learn your builds. Like when I started going colossus in PvZ I realized that scouting and placing pylons give me vision to watch for mutas and then I stopped becoming worried about mutas because I learned that minimap vision fixed that problem. So like it came naturally as I got better is what I'm trying to say. This is in the strategy section, please read forum rules. No bad advice. The reason players are in bronze league is because of their bad, noobish habits. Telling them to continue on with those bad habits will not help in the long run, or the short term. Bad habits promotes bad playing and bad players. The strategy section is for getting better, as such all advice should be kept to promoting good play. As to OP, you should try to use your mini map more than your main screen. If your focus is on your mini map, you main screen will never be out of position, as your awareness of where you need to be will be exponentially higher. Personally, I go minimap>food>main>minimap You only need a split second of focus to build a building or to chronoboost/mule/inject; everything else can and should be done with hotkeys. | ||
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rmAmnesiac
United Kingdom185 Posts
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FatalRuin
United States45 Posts
For me, I used to play MapleStory pretty hardcore and you would have to look at the top right of the screen constantly to make sure your buffs were still there. This especially held true at boss raids which I loved doing. Mages have it harder because they need a certain buff on in order to simply survive at normal monsters. Also before there was the flashing HP and MP bar option you would constantly have to look down to see if your hp was getting depleted faster than you would like. I would say if you simply want looking at map practice then maybe try something like a FPS game where the mini map is relatively simple and knowing where the red dots are could prevent a death or net you a kill. Though I would say any game that requires you to look at places other then the center of the screen would help. The more important it is to look away the easier it is to train yourself to do so. This might or might not help but since I played MapleStory and a few FPS games before switching over to mainly playing SCII I find that looking at the mini map feels perfectly natural to me. | ||
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Jedclark
United Kingdom903 Posts
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Axion12
11 Posts
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Dagon
Romania264 Posts
On February 20 2011 16:26 Asparagus wrote: Sure it was only pylon placement and map vision that helped your pvz there pal? Haha.. That had me laughing for 5 mins straight! Touche! And about the minimap, set your mouse scroll speed very low for some 100 games (allmost nonexistant) and then you will be forces to use the minimap.. Also, the advice about moving your head îs very good as it enhanches muscle memory more than just moving your eyes.. | ||
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love.less
United Kingdom293 Posts
might not be for you but works for me you should try it | ||
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MightyThor7
United States2 Posts
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shizna
United Kingdom803 Posts
i think the main problem people have was when they're struggling with micro/macro, they simply don't have time to look at minimap. that's what i found anyway. i remember playing 2v2 with a friend, and watching replay from my perspective i could see that there was sooo much going on which i didn't have a clue about because in order to macro i had to 100% focus on it. so yeah... just give it time and concentrate on improving your macro. then when your macro is better, you can effectively macro while harrassing or watching minimap etc. | ||
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CecilSunkure
United States2829 Posts
On February 20 2011 13:56 leb wrote: We all know how important it is to constantly keep an eye on the minimap. It allows us those precious extra seconds to deal with whatever's coming our way and often times means the difference between winning and losing a battle. Lately I've found that this is an area in my game where I'm struggling, and it has cost me multiple games. I've tried to keep it in mind as something that I need to constantly cycle through, like ressources and supply, but as soon as anything of interest is happening on the screen, my eyes drift away and I make critical mistakes. So the question is simple: What are effective ways to increase minimap awareness so that our eyes are constantly glancing at the bottom left corner? If you've developped a technique or a routine or anything really, please share it. http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=208343 Look at section 6.05. There you go. | ||
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kaztah
Norway1221 Posts
Probably pretty annoying vs drops, nydus, dts, and all that in the start, but eventually it will most likely help. | ||
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DuckS
United States845 Posts
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HiredGoonThug
United States72 Posts
For instance, if you are a zerg. "Just selected larva, better look at the minimap cause I know my hotkeys" "Just injected, better work on creep spread *uses minimap to go to active tumors*" "Just added these units to a control group, better regroup everything using the minimap." And so on. Minimap awareness is easiest for zerg because they don't have to go back to base camera to build supply and they have the easiest way of gaining vision (ovie spread, creep spread) | ||
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Hoban
United States1600 Posts
Another tip is to play practice games where neither you or your practice partner can map scroll at all and focus on attacking by drops. I guarantee you that you do a few of those types of games a week you will end up looking at the minimap much more often. Watch streams/vods on full screen and force yourself to constantly be looking at the minimap. It is entertaining because you will eventually see that casters miss a ton of things (Mostly because the big battle is more visually impressive to the audience). I love to do this when I watch qxc play. If you continually practice looking and moving by the minimap you will eventually get the hang of it. Also, watching your replays once-through with your eyes glued to the minimap can tell you a ton about how you play. The moment you see an enemy pop onto your minimap (or expose themselves somehow) pause the game, check where your camera was, and see what you were doing that made you not look at the minimap. That will help you better realize at what times you weren't looking and allow you to fix it. | ||
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gavinashun
101 Posts
On April 16 2011 00:47 Moja wrote: Play an APM trainer with no sound. Once you can beat it consistently, you'll be MUCH better about looking at the minimap. What is an APM trainer? | ||
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dicedicerevolution
United States245 Posts
Note that you really want to have an idea on how to execute your build order when you do this so you don't have to stop to think about what to do next. It really slows your playing speed down a lot when you have to stop to think what to do next, and it's too much to focus on at once when you're trying new things (remembering build + watching minimap). | ||
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lordsurya08
United States141 Posts
On February 20 2011 16:26 Asparagus wrote: Sure it was only pylon placement and map vision that helped your pvz there pal? Bwahahahahaha that was hilarious. You made my day, good sir. Back to topic...if I remember correctly there was a clever custom game to train you to look at the minimap regularly...I'll see if I can find it. | ||
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dynwar7
1983 Posts
On July 01 2012 09:19 lordsurya08 wrote: Bwahahahahaha that was hilarious. You made my day, good sir. Back to topic...if I remember correctly there was a clever custom game to train you to look at the minimap regularly...I'll see if I can find it. There is absolutely NO NEED to bump this just to say that. | ||
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Don.681
Philippines189 Posts
1. Check your money, is it low? Not near supply block? Yes? Smile. 2. Check your Nexi, are you making probes? Energy low? Yes? Smile. 3. Check your minimap, arey you safe? Yes? Smile. Keeps your head cool as well. :-) | ||
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Probe1
United States17920 Posts
but there was a Day9 daily that said just that. It was really good advice at the time and still is. Have a rhythm to look at supply, money, minimap, CC/whatever. I think he called it the taps or something. Anyway point being that's good advice for new/rising players. | ||
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genius_man16
United States749 Posts
On February 20 2011 16:19 Dhalphir wrote: This is a big one. If you're still struggling with basic hotkeys and being confident in your build, you really don't have the time to spare to watch the minimap, and other, more important things will suffer if you try. Focus on getting your normal gameplay (building things on time, keeping up with production, etc) down to the point of automation. You'll then find that watching the minimap will come naturally and be much easier as you'll have periods where your mind isn't actively thinking about anything, your hands are doing things by themselves. I think this is the biggest one. I'm only low master here, but I noticed that as I moved up (slowly, lol) in Diamond and refined my mechanics and build orders, looking at the mini-map simply came naturally once you start to do things automatically. Once things like building probes and pylons become second nature you will find you have a lot (at least a lot comparably) of time to look at the mini-map and notice things like drops. For me it came quite slowly, but if it's any consolation it also came naturally, I guess I never though of playing games against the AI to practice the head moving thing. That makes a lot of sense, although I'm spending a lot of time practicing mouse accuracy currently. | ||
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Asolmanx
Italy141 Posts
On July 01 2012 17:14 Probe1 wrote: ^ I had a look and couldn't find it but there was a Day9 daily that said just that. It was really good advice at the time and still is. Have a rhythm to look at supply, money, minimap, CC/whatever. I think he called it the taps or something. Anyway point being that's good advice for new/rising players. It was the mental checklist | ||
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Energy94
France22 Posts
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lazyitachi
1043 Posts
That is EXTREMELY helpful visual aid as sometimes blue can be drowned out by the terrain. You see that red ominous thing coming at you... Yah... action is needed... | ||
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KurtistheTurtle
United States1966 Posts
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OzkanTheFlip
United States246 Posts
Without the warnings to rely on you have to use your minimap | ||
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Dan885
United States35 Posts
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Antylamon
United States1981 Posts
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