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hey guys,
im a plat noob terran and i feel like my game needs some serious adjustments before i even come close to getting into diamond.
i want to really drill out the fundamental basics that set the foundation for overall good play:
not forgetting to build scvs through the early and mid game
not forgetting to build scvs/units while attacking/harassing
not getting supply blocked. ever.
obviously these are very common problems that everyone has had to deal with at some point.
my question is...does anyone have any specific methods they have used to overcome these problems?
i heard once in a day9 daily that he spent some period of time saying "probes and pylons" throughout the entirety of games so that he wouldnt forget workers or get supply blocked.
another rule i try to use, that i feel sometimes helps, is building a depot 5 food before im blocked. but that really fails once you get 10 minutes into a game and need to be building more than one at a time.
another method i saw in a stream (forget who) was the player had recorded an audio track of him saying "mule" everytime an OC would have enough energy to call down a mule. thus, not forgetting any mules.
the above are just examples of the kinds of things im looking for:
methods that you can use to really eliminate these very fundamental mechanics from being huge fall backs in your play.
help a brotha out!
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For the building SCV's (inb4 the lol mules are op'd, don't need scv's). The first thing, is don't be afraid about queuing up scv's (unless its seriously cutting into your production).
I have this neato trick that I do w/ all the races (I play w/ all 3 races equally). Is that I have natural "cycle" of things that I do, and repeat. So I'll go to my Command Center, build scv/drop mules/ drop supply (if needed). Go to production cycle, check queue's for units. Check for idle scvs to build supply depot if needed (build 2 at a time when your production is bigger). Check minimap/ Check army. And repeat.
Obviously if something happens interrupt cycle, and deal w/ problem first, then return to cycle.
Also a big thing about supply. The biggest problem w/ being supply blocked is money gets stocked up, and production stops. Whenever this happens to me, I always put down extra supply depot, and build extra production buildings (rax, factor, reactor addon, starport. etc.) to make up for fucking up the production cycle.
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I see 2 main ways of developing this, both based on methods I used when I used to practice piano.
The first is the drill method, where you constantly remind yourself to check on worker and unit production, perhaps by spamming your production facility hotkeys as quickly as possible during the game. The idea here is to get into the habit of checking your production regularly, and if you overemphasize doing this for some games you practice and develop the habit a bit more quickly than if you don't practice specifically for it.
The other method would be to look at your replays, asking yourself when you miss a production cycle, what you're doing instead so you can understand why you mess up. Say for instance you notice that you often miss production time 10 seconds into battle; after you notice that, you might create a little mental rule to engage, count to 5 then go to your hotkeys to build stuff. As you get better, you can be more precise with these cues - say you know you can do a certain number of stutter steps before you need to go produce stuff. The idea is that you're making all of these mental connections, so that for a seemingly simple task, you have many redundant mental checks in your mind that ensure that you execute it perfectly.
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Personally I think the best way to learn this is to split up these things into different steps.
If you try to have perfect mechanics for the start, you're going to get overwhelmed, and that might not be conducive to picking things up quickly.
Work on one thing at a time.
An example regiment would be:
1. Work on constantly building workers.
2. Work on not getting supply blocked.
3. Work on constantly building units out of production facilities.
4. Work on being able to build production facilities when you have excess resources.
5. Work on expanding at a good time.
So this is how it would work out:
First few games, you're not going to worry too much about if you fail on micro or other aspects of the game, but try your hardest to constantly build workers. Pretty simple, right?
Don't queue up workers, because that's just a lazy habit. In the future, you will inevitably use some queueing up, but don't do it for now, because it's practice.
So you're terran, that means every 17 seconds you go to your CC and build a worker. Think of it as a simple beat that lasts throughout the game. Never deviate from this beat!
Once you've mastered building scv's every 17 seconds, add in a second step.
Build scv's constantly AND pay attention that you never get supply capped.
Once you master this and NEVER miss an scv OR get supply capped, add in building units from a production building.
If you take it slowly and have each step down, you WILL improve your mechanics at a decent pace. It's like playing piano. For a complicated piece, you might work out what one hand does. Then the other. Then with both.
That way, you only have one focus to practice on during each game. The previous steps should be ingrained from the practice and be effortless.
Good luck!
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On May 08 2011 16:59 Frozenserpent wrote:
So you're terran, that means every 17 seconds you go to your CC and build a worker. Think of it as a simple beat that lasts throughout the game. Never deviate from this beat!
that gives me an idea.
ill try and set my metronome to beep every 16-17 seconds. that way if im in a battle or harassing and hear a beep ill be forced to hotkey to my cc and build an scv.
this will get me into the habit of taping my production hotkeys through micro heavy tasks.
also, when the beep isnt present ill feel uncomfortable NOT building an scv while microing.
dont know why i didnt think of that before...thanks!
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I play zerg. When I offrace as terran or protoss, I just apm spam and look at my energy/production since I'm not used to the timings.
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@wei2coolman
i really like the idea of having a sort of checkbox cycle in mind instead of free-styling it.
for example, being in a situation where you want to build a bunch of marines so you spam AAAA
then realize you're supply blocked. so you spam depots all over. then realize you havent been building scvs the whole time and cant afford any. or something ridiculous like that.
instead, want to build marines but make yourself check scvs first. then supply. then spam A for marines.
i can work with this.
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One thing that might help is to hotkey all your ccs/nexus/drones and put each to the middle mineral patch. then you don't actually have to look back to build your workers.
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setting hotkeys and keep spamming it seems to help with production.
as for the supply, I have yet to find a better way but the most crucial point is not to get supply blocked at the first 20 mins of the game.
I am a zerg player and supply block is not so common because overlord is one of the way to scout.
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What I found to be the easiest way personally, was to put all my nexi/command centers/hatcheries on ctrl 5, and all of my production facilities on 4, and just use tab if there are different building types. Idk I'm in top 8 masters, seems to work pretty well. And units on 1,2,3.
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Train the shit out of your muscle memory aka play shitloads of games. SHIT.
P.S. remember to have comfortable hotkeys and I suggset you to use all 9 of them if possible.
I'd like to give longer answer with more details but it's just that simple (it was for me when I had problems with macroing).
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I'm a noob diamond terran, and the league I spent the most time in was Bronze, the league i spent the least time in is Platinum.
Why?
During Platinum I played upgrade focused styles, and regardless of my macro my army was just so much better. Now in Diamond I actually make workers  .
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One thing I'd like to add is don't get too concerned with the odd supply block, it will happen, no one is perfect, and it's only a huge issue if your going for a timing attack or if you do it 7 times in a row. Even some of the best pro players will occasionally hit a supply block.
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For constantly keeping up with your supply, it is best to have a trigger for yourself of a natural time to make a supply structure. Just as an example, I like to use 3 warpgates off of 1 base as protoss. Pylons take 25 seconds to build. Since my warpgates take ~30 seconds to recharge for basic units, and I can can build 1 probe every 17 seconds, if I make my pylon right after I'm done warping in, it will finish a second or two before my next warp cycle. With more than 3 warp gates worth of production, I feel like i have to be aggressive and lose some units to be able to afford to both make the units and keep up with supply.
I know there is something similar with zerg, where you should make an overlord shortly after you larva inject for it to finish before your larva pops.
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One way i found to help with constatnt supply depot building is to not shit-click back an scv to minerals when they build a depot. Now everytime your scv finishes a depot you will have the idle worker icon on screen. As soon as you see that click on it and build another depot. as far as production facilities, i just hotkey them all and constantly cycle through them. Also if you play with healthbars on, you can see the production status on all your buildings without having to click on them. That way you know if a building is building anything or not.
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I read all of the replies, and I feel I agree with Frozenserpent the most. The way I learned(and the way I have been teaching my friends) is by focusing on ONE aspect of your mechanics at a time. For instance, for one whole week I would focus on always always making workers. Over my micro, over production, everything. After 8 or 9 days of drilling just this thought, it starts to become automatic. Then next week, work on never getting supply blocked. Then each week pick something new and drill it into your brain.
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I'm assuming you are Terran. The best way to do all of these, in order from easiest to hardest:
1) Not getting supply capped: memorize what supply you need to start your depots. after your 9th SCV pops, 16, 23, 31, (you should have a CC by now, but if you don't I believe it's 38), 46, and from here it's constant depot production, and I believe at about 80 or so it's constant double depot production, but that depends on the strat/ how much you've lost.
2) constant SCV production: There really isn't any trick to this. The way I learned was to just talk to myself out-loud to constantly build SCVs all game. I also put a sticky note on my monitor right under the mini-map that says build SCVs 
3) not forgetting to build scvs/units while attacking/harassing: Once you get comfortable with just building SCVs, this should come naturally, although you should use the advice from above if you still have trouble.
Also remember, for number 2 and 3, the same goes for constant unit production, which is equally as important. Although for unit production, most players keep looking at their resource count and hit production cycles as they see their resources start to rise a bit.
As said above, it's imperitive to only focus on one at a time. I suggest starting from #1 and just focusing on that for a week. Next week do #2, and #3 the week after.
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Use the "tap" method. Basically you constantly tap 4 or whatever your command center is and check if an SCV is being made. So if your army is 1, barracks 3 and command center 4 just go 4,3,4,3,1,1, micro micro, 4,3,4,3
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On May 08 2011 16:45 wei2coolman wrote:
Also a big thing about supply. The biggest problem w/ being supply blocked is money gets stocked up, and production stops. Whenever this happens to me, I always put down extra supply depot, and build extra production buildings (rax, factor, reactor addon, starport. etc.) to make up for fucking up the production cycle.
Not to mention, you could also start upgrades which you otherwise wouldn't have started just yet if you had your production facilities running at full capacity. Makes your units better earlier at least while you have the money to spare.
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One thing that sounds really dumb but really helped my play is whenever i'm in a battle or scouting or something that requires you moving stuff around just think " wait a minute, macro's more important, how can i be macro'ing right now " and then check your still building scv's and supply depots and marines and marauders. In my experience, especially around the gold/plat/diamond level when people are getting really competent but can't multitask so well the player that makes sure he's building an army at home during the battle is the one that wins. the other player could micro his heart out but will have big trouble if you keep streaming in stuff, or when he comes for a counter-attack you just crush him 
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y0 bro^ terran player here... Had the same problem as you not long time ago. But 1 day one of my roomates(top master protoss) had an idea. He said that he was very tired to see all my supply blocks all the time when he watches my games. So he said : " I will watch like 3 games of you playing ladder, then every time you get supply blocked I will shoot this soft-air gun somewhere on your body while you play". And I just kinda no way man. But after 2 min i agreed. And I didn't get supply blocked. Now its like 1 of 10 games that i get supply blocket =) maybe you should try that to =)
HF GL!!
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Suggestion about the supply block, I do this from time to time, when you get to the point where you need to constantly build depot's or you will be blocked, be it 1 or 2 at a time, Dont que the SCV to go anywhere when its done, that way you will get an idle SCV notice that you can quickly tab to and build another depot
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I still think the best method for getting better in anything is just playing the game. spend less time reading and watching, more time playing. I got from turbo noobie to bottom masters just by playing (since beta). now I read and watch more ,mostly for entertainment, but also to learn the fine points I miss just by playing.
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EPT
