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[G]Worker Splitting & Improving Mining efficiency - Page 4

Forum Index > StarCraft 2 Strategy
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Yaotzin
Profile Joined August 2010
South Africa4280 Posts
April 13 2011 00:00 GMT
#61
It doesn't help much, but then most of the things you do on their own don't help much. Add them together though...

Plus that feeling of a build working just right, with everything being built right as you have the resources, is totally awesome.
kzn
Profile Blog Joined June 2007
United States1218 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-04-13 00:33:58
April 13 2011 00:13 GMT
#62
On April 13 2011 06:06 genius_man16 wrote:
I'm surprised no one has made a guide for this yet. Very well done though

I've been doing this for awhile, but I never really thought it mattered that much, I just did it cuz the pro's did. Haha.

It would be interesting for someone to test and see if there really is that much gained from doing this.

One thing I've wondered is if it's better to queue the worker before sending the 6 to mine or after?


In strict theory this depends on where your first building is placed (for P and T, for Z its actually better to send before building). Technically, if you can place your first pylon instantly upon 100 minerals its better to build first, but if there's much travel time to the pylon or you delay it at all its better to split first.

However, the major point is that "queue->split" is much faster for most people than "split->queue", probably because the mouse movements required for the latter are significantly larger. As long as you can queue->split faster than the reverse, its a better option. The reverse also holds, but I don't know of anyone for whom thats true.

[edit] My question is - when do I stop? When the 4 best patches have paired workers, or when the 6 best patches have paired workers, or what?

[edit2] I've been practicing this on XNC lower spawn, and at least on that spawn doing this right generates a around a 1 second advantage on when you can chronoboost with no waste.
Like a G6
Thraundil
Profile Joined August 2010
Denmark278 Posts
April 13 2011 00:25 GMT
#63
Basically when you are idle, micro your workers. On XNC there are 4 close mineral patches which means when you have 10 workers you should have 8 of them on close patches, and 2 of them on the other patches.... But do not sacrifice scouting, keeping your build neat etc. for this, though
Hivemind! Just like IRL...
SaJa
Profile Joined November 2010
France84 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-04-13 00:47:30
April 13 2011 00:45 GMT
#64
By the way, there is a good way to split his probes faster against hellions rush.

When the hellions are coming, you need to select all your probes working and press S to stop mining. From there, you just spam F1 + click somewhere, everytime you repeat the process you have to click in different location, so your probes will go quickly a bit everywhere dodging the splash damage of the blue flame. Working pretty well to not lose all probes on a shot =)
iChau
Profile Joined December 2010
United States1210 Posts
April 13 2011 00:47 GMT
#65
On April 13 2011 09:45 SaJa wrote:
By the way, there is a good way to split his probes faster against hellions rush.

When the hellions are coming, you need to select all your probes working and press S to stop mining. From there, you just spam F1 + click somewhere, everytime you repeat the process you have to click in different location. Working pretty well to not lose all probes on a shot =)


Lol we're talking about early-game splitting to maximize mineral efficiency.

oh, and one time I accidentally right clicked all my probes into gas against hellions... I cried.
us.battle.net/sc2/en/profile/1688911/1/SaniShahin/ | http://teamenvy.net/
SaJa
Profile Joined November 2010
France84 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-04-13 00:50:03
April 13 2011 00:49 GMT
#66
Lol we're talking about early-game splitting to maximize mineral efficiency.



Well, I know but you mainly talking about probes splitting so I just wanted to give a little tip advise :p
Quochobao
Profile Joined October 2010
United States350 Posts
April 13 2011 00:51 GMT
#67
2. Force the worker to mine on the closer mineral patch by vigorously right clicking on it to prevent it from bouncing to another patch. Make sure to be right clicking as closely to the base (Nexus) as possible to make sure the two workers are perfectly synchronized to the same patch.


Ehm...what does "it" refer to?

". . . by vigorously right clicking on [the patch] to prevent [the probe] from bouncing to another patch
?

And "as closely to the base as possible" refers to the patch closest to the middle? And the reasoning is that probes on closest patches will always stay synchronized?
Best or nothing.
kzn
Profile Blog Joined June 2007
United States1218 Posts
April 13 2011 00:53 GMT
#68
When you spam click a mineral patch, the probe starts to shuffle around the patch to a point which is closest to your click location. If you click the mineral patch closer to the nexus, the shuffling is minimized, lessening the chance of an instant desync when the other probe returns to that patch.

Its probably the single least important part of the whole thing - most of the time, you need to recognize that a desync is going to happen again and deal with that probe as you would any other probe - once you've sync'd each probe to a patch individually they almost never desync unless the patch itself is too close.
Like a G6
Yaotzin
Profile Joined August 2010
South Africa4280 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-04-13 01:02:54
April 13 2011 01:01 GMT
#69
On April 13 2011 09:51 Quochobao wrote:
Show nested quote +
2. Force the worker to mine on the closer mineral patch by vigorously right clicking on it to prevent it from bouncing to another patch. Make sure to be right clicking as closely to the base (Nexus) as possible to make sure the two workers are perfectly synchronized to the same patch.


Ehm...what does "it" refer to?

". . . by vigorously right clicking on [the patch] to prevent [the probe] from bouncing to another patch
?

Yep.

And "as closely to the base as possible" refers to the patch closest to the middle? And the reasoning is that probes on closest patches will always stay synchronized?

As close to the nexus means make sure the probe is in line with the nexus, rather than a bit to the side or whatever. You need the probe to return to the nexus in the shortest possible time(technically just in the same amount of time, but since the other one is already set on the shortest possible path..), or they'll just desync again.
Barca
Profile Blog Joined October 2010
United States418 Posts
April 13 2011 01:48 GMT
#70
I've been doing this for months

Regardless of what people say, it gets you your second probe faster. You will always be able to que it up after your initial worker.
- I hate threads that end with "Thoughts?" -
ZasZ.
Profile Joined May 2010
United States2911 Posts
April 13 2011 02:00 GMT
#71
Obviously this only makes a small mineral difference and will almost never make or break a game, but a great guide nonetheless and something I will strive to do in all my games from now on.

Also gives me something to do to warm up besides mindless spamming which tends to hurt more than help me.
TiBe
Profile Joined November 2009
Mexico200 Posts
April 13 2011 03:56 GMT
#72
Thanks, nice read and so well explained, actually it doesn't seems that much but when you do things that have a narrow window time (like in ZvZ and PvP) where every second counts this helps a lot.
Obaten
Profile Joined December 2010
United States730 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-04-13 04:02:13
April 13 2011 04:00 GMT
#73
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=129010

Worker splitting doesn't matter.

Edit: sorry, it gives you 5 more minerals at 40 seconds.
Yoshi Kirishima
Profile Blog Joined July 2009
United States10366 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-04-13 04:19:42
April 13 2011 04:16 GMT
#74
Question:

What can you say about the study where apparently, the incomes of a player who splits (3-3 and 4-1-1) turns out to be the same as someone who simply right clicks on the middle mineral patches? Just wondering. It was also said that the only difference was a 5 mineral lead for a couple seconds, but that it was virtually equal after a while (idk how long a while is).

Also, are you sure it's more efficient to group all 6 probes, then split 3 from them, instead of 3-3?


Edit: Nevermind, I found the thread and it seems the reason why the incomes are basically the same no matter how you send your workers to mine because the map that the splits were tested on did not have a mineral line where the edges were closer (ex: Xel'Naga), but where the middle patches were the same/closer.
Mid-master streaming MECH ONLY + commentary www.twitch.tv/yoshikirishima +++ "If all-in fails, all-in again."
Alejandrisha
Profile Blog Joined July 2010
United States6565 Posts
April 13 2011 04:20 GMT
#75
On April 13 2011 13:00 Obaten wrote:
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=129010

Worker splitting doesn't matter.

Edit: sorry, it gives you 5 more minerals at 40 seconds.

That's just for the split. Not for mineral stacking if I am reading correctly
get rich or die mining
TL+ Member
sooch
Profile Joined April 2010
Canada299 Posts
April 13 2011 04:29 GMT
#76
Using the stop command upon arriving at the close patch and then issuing a single gather command when the mineral crystal appears in the resident worker's hands is more reliable than spam clicking, in my experience
kzn
Profile Blog Joined June 2007
United States1218 Posts
April 13 2011 04:37 GMT
#77
Splitting alone doesn't matter. Worker stacking undeniably does produce an advantage, and splitting is necessary to worker stack optimally, thus, splitting matters.
Like a G6
Obaten
Profile Joined December 2010
United States730 Posts
April 13 2011 05:36 GMT
#78
On April 13 2011 13:20 Alejandrisha wrote:
Show nested quote +
On April 13 2011 13:00 Obaten wrote:
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=129010

Worker splitting doesn't matter.

Edit: sorry, it gives you 5 more minerals at 40 seconds.

That's just for the split. Not for mineral stacking if I am reading correctly


Yup, but people were talking about the split helping. Mineral stacking is totally awesome and works.
OptimusYale
Profile Blog Joined January 2011
Korea (South)1005 Posts
April 13 2011 05:46 GMT
#79
I've been doing this without even realising. when I split I put them there because they mine all 3 min patches in the same space before spreading out on the second run. As a low level player doesn't make too much of a difference, and sometimes I miss click and have 3 drones doing nothing, BUT when it works it looks boss and gives me a good 4 or 5 seconds boost!
Kornholi0
Profile Joined November 2010
Canada634 Posts
April 13 2011 06:30 GMT
#80
On April 13 2011 07:34 jdseemoreglass wrote:
Show nested quote +
On April 13 2011 07:28 Kornholi0 wrote:
I may not have blue post or high masters rank or been in hundreds of leagues... But I can tell you this.
Idra never lost a game cause he didn't split his drones.
This basically means that sure, you get a "lead" but that lead is instantly lost once you hit the mid-game. Once you hit certain variables where 5 minerals no longer is an issue (maynarding probes, oversaturation, loss of probe etc) You having that lead means absolutely nothing.
It is a good habit, and it actually was worth doing in broodwar because your units did not auto split, but because they do so in SCII there is absolutely no reason to worry about that kind of economic lead.

Purest form of this example,
if 2 zergs 6p the one who splits his drones and the one who doesn't split his drones will have lings at the exact same time OR if this example holds true and you get an extra lead (by no means can you actually apply it but w/e) you should have 3 sets of lings FASTER than the other guy. But the point is you both 6pooled, which means you both have 6 lings anyways, which means that you didn't actually get ahead or behind by having those lings 0.05 seconds sooner.

I don't mean to downvote your post, I think it is a great idea to split guys, it gets into good habit and causes a certain flow to your builds. I would look more to how that helps your timing for your first buildings more than if it helps you get more workers... It doesn't create economic lead as you both have the same exact minerals regardless at the end of the day.


I've spent hours testing zerg openings for a few of my threads, and I can tell you that microing your workers at the start can make a SIGNIFICANT difference. I've had people send me their replays that surpassed the results I got in my testing, and the differences all came down to their methods of microing workers, where as I simply sent all workers and rallied to a single patch and let the AI do the rest in order to have consistency of results.

At the end of the day though, the real question is if there is any reason NOT to micro your workers. Clearly there isn't. You aren't doing anything else in the opening anyways, you might as well go for a mineral advantage and also practice your mouse control at the same time.
 


Don't get me wrong, there is an "advantage" but really you didn't win a game because you had 5 more minerals than the other guy one second sooner.
I would say that this qualifies as being one of those things that gets you from being the 2nd best player in the world to like first best player in the world... Its like a non-existant difference of a difference for anyone under *last season* 4k masters...
Like I also said it causes a fluency... I'd use it more for the fact that getting those minerals 1 second sooner helps my build come together better, not exactly faster. I guess smoother should be the object of this thread, not faster. You shouldn't always want to play faster, but if you play smoother or at least have a bunch of good timings you'll be set.
I guess you could also think of this as like, if I do this at the beginning, I can transfer 1 more drone to my expo and then get an even larger economic advantage or something. Snowball effects + smooth effects + mental effects = win.
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