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[L] Using the mini map throughout the game
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Metafour
United States137 Posts
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Killcycle
United States170 Posts
That's what I try to do and it seems to be the easiest method to remember and stick to; I imagine at higher levels with more practice something more fitting to your playstyle might become habit. That way you're not looking at the minimap constantly and at the same time you're still glancing frequently enough that you have a good idea of what's going on. | ||
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Maxd11
United States680 Posts
When it comes to keeping your resources low you only need to really look at the resources when your income adjusts. You don't really have to worry about it in the beginning of the game if you are just following a BO or spending as money becomes available. In the mid to late game it is important to have an understanding of what you can do with the resources and income you have so you can expand and tech switch and add production facilities as need be. TLDR: Don't look at the resources or the map. Feel the resources and the map. | ||
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Greenishmilk
Australia33 Posts
Don't look at the resources or the map. Feel the resources and the map. ^^ Well said. <3 A good way to practice these things is by playing against the computer, and just focusing on them rather than actually winning. that way the pressure of the game is taken off you and you can get used to things such as Hotkeys, the minimap, control groups, supply blocking, and making probes/SCVs/creep-spread and injects at regular intervals. Do this for about 10-20 games until you feel like you have a stronger game sense, then come back to laddering, and find yourself playing better games against harder opponents. | ||
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Metafour
United States137 Posts
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bubblegumbo
Taiwan1296 Posts
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iplayBANJO
United States129 Posts
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dryice135
Australia35 Posts
It seems counter intuitive that looking at the minimap and resources indicator would increase my actions that I perform on the main screen. I feel that when I look at the minimap and the resources it spawns thoughts in my mind very quickly, much faster than ideas that may have spawned if I was looking at the main screen. For example I will see my scouting scv on the minimap, I would select him and give him another move command, I would see my 1st marine at my expansion my minimap so I send him to scout for an overloard. I look at my minerals and I see my gas approaching 100 so I get ready to make my fac. So basically the minimap and minerals indicator in combination are spawning ideas for actions if that makes any sense :S. Of course these actions should compliment your high level build / strategy that you have chosen. I am only low masters though with a lot to learn so pros may have something different to say about using the minimap but this is my experience. | ||
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Amaterasu1234
United States317 Posts
And, since I'm a zerg player, getting dropped by Terran was a HUGE hassle for a very long time...until I learned to watch my minimap. (if you're wondering how I deal with nukes/nyduses, they both have text alerts that show up simultaneously with the audio alerts) | ||
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mapleleafs791
United States225 Posts
Just try to memorize how often you should build depots/overlords/pylons. When i think about when i started learning terran (and still now as i hate warp prisms when i offrace :X) i couldnt deal with looking at the minimap + my supply + macroing + microing but you eventually realize "i just made 2 scvs + 4 marines + 6 marauders, i should probably drop 2-4 depots" eventually you will know exactly when to drop building without looking at your supply every 2 seconds and you can just glance at it to make sure. I does take practice though as i was a zerg learning terran to macro skills def. transferred over. Just practice more then it will seem intuitive and even if your not looking at your minimap your eyes will catch the subtle movements and set an alarm off in your head. But it wont come quickly, it takes practice practice practice... We talking bout practice? | ||
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mrGRAPE
Singapore293 Posts
I believe Day[9] outlined in his Daily that you should generally have a mental checklist of what you should be doing/looking at while playing the game. While this is awesome if you already have a checklist (or you're using his checklist), the minimap is only really as helpful as what you let yourself see ie, map vision. If you're having problems with using the minimap to check for drops, enemy movement etc etc, maybe the problem isn't so much about actually looking at the minimap but how much information you can get by looking at the minimap. Personally for me, I really started using the minimap not because I followed a checklist etc, but I started to notice drops and little red dots on the minimap due to an effort to try and improve my creep spread and overlord placement for vision. Once you have enough map vision to give yourself some information about what your opponent is (or isn't) doing, the minimap starts to become incredibly useful. As a general rule, you should try and look at the minimap after every significant action or two. That means if you're moving your army halfway across the map, either by scrolling or by using the minimap itself, take a quick glance at the minimap and continue with whatever you're doing. That however doesn't mean dancing your eyes around screen if you're spam clicking or microing. You could also take some time to look at the minimap when you're building stuff, be it units or structures. SCV going to build a supply depot? Why not look at the minimap while it's walking there. Queuing up units in your production facilities? Minimap's calling. The game pretty much allows you small amounts of downtime to look at the minimap whenever you can. I recommend playing on Normal or slower speed to try and get a feel of when these windows of opportunity can happen for you. | ||
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Nibbler89
884 Posts
Minimap awareness is probably the biggest gap out of all my skillsets atm and I have been wanting to work on it as well. What has acted as my crutch is my scouting is pretty good, so I'll send units out to scout and see things coming but mostly rely on the game telling me the unit is dying then go check whats going on. (think someone mentioned turning off game sound to force minimap awareness as a BW coach tactic) Now on how to actually improve this I was watching a replay of MVP and most kr pro terrans seem to do this. For drops its actually pretty rare they hot key dropships, whereas when I do multiple drops i usually hotkey them and just sorta flick between them, they however mostly do their drops from the minimap. So from now on I plan on using drops in conjunction with minimap to improve, and not hotkey them but rather just check minimap and control them from there. So it's an actual task / use of the minimap and not just forcing myself to stare at it. Eventually it will become natural. *I'm sure each race has different effective tasks to improve minimap awareness though. | ||
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sVnteen
Germany2238 Posts
On January 01 2012 12:29 Maxd11 wrote: It really just becomes natural after awhile. If you see a small glimmer of evil red in the corner of your left eye you just glance down to the left to the map. I often do it subconsciously and just find myself looking at the map seemingly on accident when an enemy unit comes into my vision. I can also say that having a big monitor and sitting close to it can slightly diminish your ability to do this. I think that the mindset to have is one where you are always monitoring the whole game and then just diverting your attention constantly to do the actual tasks like macro and micro. Do this to the point where you are never actually monitoring the game consciously because you are constantly doing the tasks but you are always monitoring the game and considering your position. (if that makes any sense at all). When it comes to keeping your resources low you only need to really look at the resources when your income adjusts. You don't really have to worry about it in the beginning of the game if you are just following a BO or spending as money becomes available. In the mid to late game it is important to have an understanding of what you can do with the resources and income you have so you can expand and tech switch and add production facilities as need be. TLDR: Don't look at the resources or the map. Feel the resources and the map. yeah thats what i thought too i dont really know how it worked for me but it kinda is the same for me | ||
Pholon
Netherlands6142 Posts
Anyway, I feel it's similar to driving a car: you have to learn constantly switching your attention from front windshield to sidemirrors to speedometer to rear mirror etc. Which requires focus and practise and if you master it you'll be a better driver. Day9/mrGrape's checklist seems like a good idea. | ||
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UnRivaled.
United States18 Posts
Make hotkeys for map locations by using ctrl + f1 through f5 for important spots at or near your base. I usually use f1 at my main and f2 for my natural because sometimes you want to rally a worker back to minerals after building something. And it will take much longer to click on the mini map or scroll back to the mineral line, so you can simply hit f1 or f2 to take you to whichever base you want. Another trick related to this is moving a worker off of minerals, then holding shift, and then building whatever it is you want to build (with protoss only). For terran you'll just have to box a few workers and manually do it. Also make sure you hotkey your army so that you can simply double tap 1 or whatever hotkey you have them on. This will allow you to get to your forces quickly if they come under attack. You are on the right track about wanting to keep the majority of your attention on the mini map and your screen. I usually spend most of my time looking at the screen and using 1 unit to scout around the map while I glance down at my mini map every few seconds. | ||
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Metafour
United States137 Posts
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sofakng
100 Posts
 In all seriousness though it basically comes down to forcing yourself to constantly look I dont know how to do camera hotkeys so I constantly use the minimap or double hitting hotkeys to fast travel across the map. The resource counter I always check when im warping in or making units to see what i can afford and such so it becomes habit. "o i have 2000 gas, ht time it is" | ||
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