[G] The Cycle method for Zerg macro - Page 4

You'll have to learn the technique first before you get game sense and stuff back. You cannot expect to learn this method and have it set into your brain right away.

Currently, you are still spending a lot of processing time to the new macro method, if you do this regularly, this amount of time will decrease, leaving you to focus on game awareness and other stuff.

You are thus describing something that is very logical and totally expected.

On October 11 2011 19:15 IcemanAsi wrote:


Executing the cycle:

Timer Resets >>
1. Inject all your hatches (I use 6 to select all queens then cycle hatches with mouse-4)
2. Make units with your larvae (8 larvae from the spawn)
3. Spread creep (I use ctrl+mouse-5 to set camera to my creep tumors then go mouse-5, select all tumors, spread, reset camera )
4. Scout and think (Reposition your current overlords, send some lings around and think about what you see. You have to decide whether your next cycle will be of 1 supply per larvae units (Lings/Drones) or 2 supply units (Everything else but Ultralisks, at which point your supply is probably maxed anyway).
5. Make Overlords (Your hatches natural larvae creation will now provide you with larvae at a perfect timing; you should now make overlords in accordance to your decision in the previous step. If you’re going for 1supply units – 1 overlord per two hatches; 2 supply units – 1 overlord per hatch. With 2 bases and a macro hatch it becomes either a 1-2-1 cycle for 1 supply units or a 2-3-2 cycle for 2 supply units)
6. Build another hatchery if applicable (Best to drop the hatch on 20/40 on the timer)
7. Make a queen if you want another one (This should be timed to 30/40 on the timer – your new queen will be synchronized with the current cycle)
8. Reposition drones if required
Timer Resets >>

Keeping to this cycle will not only make sure you inject on time, it will synchronize your overlord production with your larvae so you will supply cap less and help you spread creep and utilize the larvae you have. You will also have synchronized queen and be able to synch your tech buildings with available larvae.

Tech building synchronization timings to spawn larvae timer:
Roach warren - 25/40
Hydralisk den - 0/40
Spire - 20/40
Infestation pit (Taking into account the research time as well) - 0/40
Ultralisk Cavern - 15/40

Hope you guys have as much fun with this as I’m having; it made playing zerg into a much more flowing and rewarding experience for me.
GL HF!

On October 14 2011 19:58 baba44713 wrote:


I understand this. However I'm now in a frame of mind that I need not only to learn this cycle, but also adapt it to my skill level, especially when it comes to OLs.

For example I love how this technique prepares OL with your natural larva, and then cashes it in with your injected larva. In theory it sounds great. In practice however, this keeps supply-blocking me since proposed step 4 of the cycle (scout and think) makes me miss the 15-sec mark which I absolutely need to hit if I want my natural OLs make room for injected larva units. Additionally, it seems to add another another layer of thinking ahead which I am unable to deal with - before I kinda conditioned myself to always build units and OLs in parallel, keeping my supply slightly ahead of requirements. This was clumsy and suboptimal, but still made it so I never really heard "We require more Overlords" message anymore. Now, thinking about how many OLs I need made it come back with the vengeance, and boy I was not happy to hear it.

TL;DR - because of my noobish Plat skills I think I'll try to stick with inject/produce/spread creep cycle, I'll stick with the hatch timer, but I'll ditch the OL-from-natural-larva bit for my good old OLs+units method. At least for now.

On October 14 2011 18:48 ShakAttaK wrote:


A flat 14 in a game or against a computer? cause i can max out at 14 if i am never attacked and i can make at 16-18 if i am attacked i bind my base camera to my middle mouse button and i dont use camera even though i should

On October 14 2011 23:11 houstil wrote:
This is a nice guide for macroing during a calm and steady game but doing this cycle concistensly when you have to multitask, manage multiple army group and react quickly to imminent threats is really hard.

In fact I think that a good player should be able to prioritize his actions while being able to hit his injections on time during a high pressure scenario. My injects are close to perfect against the IA but late game against a good human opponent make me feel really dumb with my full energy queens, not good enough QQ.

I tried to use the in-game timer to know when to inject (adding 40 second is easy but I tend to forget to look at the timer before injecting). I have to admit that the "tapping hatch method" is easier but one big annoyement is that you loose the larvae progress bar when getting a knew queen or some upgrade. Do you have a solution regarding this issue ?

On October 14 2011 18:36 TheGreenMachine wrote:
Very nice thread! This is almost exactly how I do my cycle.

The only differences being I don't use hotkeys for my creep tumors I prefer minimap for that.

Also I don't hotkey a single hatchery but I definitely will start! That looks so useful.

On October 15 2011 00:24 IcemanAsi wrote:


Hi Baba,

I'm happy to hear you're trying this out, and I'm thrilled that it's improving your Macro!

I think your over complicating step 4 as this shouldn't be that complex a decision, it comes down to an A/B decision. You're either using the next round of larvae for 1 supply units, which are either ings or drones ( in case you should make 1 overlord per 2 hatch ) or your making 2 supply units, which is almost everything else ( 1 overlord per hatch ).
You see, I think the use of natural larvae for overlords is really the heart of this process, much more important then the single hatch timer, it forces you to keep overlord production constant and the overlord hatch and resulting supply jump is a great reminder to inject and make units. thus using the larvae and so on, and so on....
I would recommend that once you get into the mid-game you make a small buffer of 1-2 overlords but no more, this will both help you with supply cap and allow you to do some more scouting, losing an overlord to gain information is cheap, getting supply capped to do the same is a problem. If I know I'm going to sacrifice some overlords to scouting I make some additional ones in the unit phase of cycle.

to answer another users question, if you also have a macro hatch then it becomes 1-2-1, that is:
1st cycle - make 1 overlord
2nd cycle - make 2 overlords
....repeat

or if you're making 2 supply units:
1st cycle - make 2 overlords
2nd cycle - make 3 overlords
....repeat

On October 15 2011 03:58 iNotZerg wrote:
just so i understand clearly,
1st cycle - 1 lord
2nd cycle- 2 lord
3rd cycle - 1 lord
and so on..

and..
1st- 2 lord
2nd-3 lord
3rd- 2 lord
and so on...


so for one supply unit, your making a total of 4 lords per cycle, and 7 lords for 2 supply units for per cycle?

Or you alternate between 1 lord and 2 lord.

On October 15 2011 12:44 TTneko wrote:
My god, you are giving (obviously) new players a macro cycle to help them not stuff up any of their mechanical aspects of the game

But it's 8 steps long

Do you think bad players will remember 8 step long cycles?
Do you think good players need a cycle like this?
It doesn't make sense

On October 16 2011 01:45 TheGreenMachine wrote:
A simpler cycle for newer plays would be

>>spawn larva pops and started again
1. use larva on units
2. make overlords
3. ....?
4. Profit
>>end cycle

the "...?" could be anything else needed, these things are usually not part of your cycle but should be done with your spare time. All the rest that is starcraft scouting army movement ect.