EPT[G] A Focused Approach to Perfecting Mechanics - Page 7
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KillerSOS
United States4207 Posts
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ShadyKat
United Kingdom40 Posts
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gRzBrandO
Canada50 Posts
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DrZz
Romania70 Posts
Great effort! | ||
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theDeer
Poland6 Posts
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p1cKLes
United States342 Posts
Though for some reason my VOD kept cutting in and out every time I was cycling my keys? | ||
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ShaneFeit
92 Posts
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FalconPunch
United States134 Posts
One question though about part 2.2 Watching yourself.. I know you mentioned xsplit, which I downloaded.. but I didn't see an option to capture videos? at least not for free? I didn't look into this too much, but I was wondering if you had a guide or something on how to do this for free. My only other option was using FRAPs, but my videos end up taking up huge amounts of hard drive space.. Do you usually need to convert your captured videos afterwards to save space? | ||
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Infocus
Canada31 Posts
I do however have some serious concerns over Part 3. 3.1 Step 1: Should I spam and why? If you are looking for a simple one word answer then the answer is YES. The much more important and relevant question is the why part. Spam is step 1 to becoming a fast player. You have probably read a post from a player better than you telling you that you should spam in order to get the raw speed in place and latter on that raw speed will become more and more effective. The above statement is no better than saying "Why do we spam? Because it makes us faster and gives us raw speed which then make us effectively faster". Having read this, even If I did agree with you, it sounds like baloney. It's not really an argument, you might as well have said "Why do we spam? Just cause". I was expecting more of a statement saying of how you started out slow and got faster through spam. This is the classic issue where people who are fast spam and people who are not fast generally don't spam. This proves a correlation but no causation. In contrast your earlier section section shown below gives an excellent analysis on why FPVODs are better due to lack of information on the mouse cursor. 2.1 Why do we use FPVODs instead of replays? As we continue through this guide, and as you might have already noticed, you will see a lack of the replay. Replays are great for quickly going through a game to look at timings, the complete game state, decisions making, and finding errors in macro. They are not very useful fine tuning our mechanics. They lack one thing which is just too important: the mouse cursor. It is important that we be able to have as complete a understanding as possible as to how we are playing the game and how others are playing the game. Replays show us where we click but not what the mouse is doing at all other times. In a pinch, you can learn from watching your replays in the first person point of view but it will lack the full impact of what you are looking for. I highly recommend staying away from replays when applying the ideas of this guide and instead turn towards FPVODs whenever possible. So concerning the mouse spam, why do you believe that it's a good way increase your EPM? i.e. Is it necessary to increase your APM first and then your EPM? I would just sidestep the whole APM thing, it's not what you want anyways. | ||
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Br3ezy
United States720 Posts
Basically the whole idea is that before you increase your eapm, you first have to increase your apm. Again I have a pretty good idea of what I want to add to this now that there has been so much feedback. I just need to find some time to do it | ||
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Infocus
Canada31 Posts
On March 17 2012 22:57 Br3ezy wrote: I have sort of been busy lately, but I do plan on making some adjustments on the SPAM section. I have an idea that will make things more clearer and it will probably make a lot of things click so youll just have to wait for that for now sorry! Basically the whole idea is that before you increase your eapm, you first have to increase your apm. Again I have a pretty good idea of what I want to add to this now that there has been so much feedback. I just need to find some time to do it Thanks | ||
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Mementoss
Canada2595 Posts
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S. aureus
United States14 Posts
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vaderseven
United States2556 Posts
On March 19 2012 03:24 Mementoss wrote: I can't even spam up to 200 APM. Fuuu Try this: type asd over and over as fast as you can. Congrats, you have now spammed up to ~1,400 apm. Not even joking. Don't think its a muscle or hand speed thing. Its mental. | ||
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acgFork
Canada397 Posts
I quit in October and I'm starting SC2 all over again, mainly because its awesome and I love the community. I'm at the same level as a gold leaguer atm, but I'm in Plat. My goal is to reach Diamond by May/June, only playing between 30 minutes and an hour each day. I started playing this weekend and my plan is to find a build for each matchup and practice them until I'm comfortable, and then try the ladder. I have a notebook that I use to analyze each of my games and what I need to change. In your opinion, would this goal be achievable, given my constraints? And what should I focus on to get the most out of my practice time? Thank you. | ||
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Danglars
United States12133 Posts
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vaderseven
United States2556 Posts
On March 19 2012 10:27 acgFork wrote: Last summer, I spent countless hourS wasting time and not practicing properly. By september, I was still Plat. I quit in October and I'm starting SC2 all over again, mainly because its awesome and I love the community. I'm at the same level as a gold leaguer atm, but I'm in Plat. My goal is to reach Diamond by May/June, only playing between 30 minutes and an hour each day. I started playing this weekend and my plan is to find a build for each matchup and practice them until I'm comfortable, and then try the ladder. I have a notebook that I use to analyze each of my games and what I need to change. In your opinion, would this goal be achievable, given my constraints? And what should I focus on to get the most out of my practice time? Thank you. I would focus almost 100% of the small time on playing. If you were playing between 1-3 hours a day and hitting like 15 hours a week I would say 2-5 hours on looking at your play (replays or fpvods depending on strats or mechanics) and the rest on pure playing. 30-60 mins a day is sometimes what is needed to get warmed up to the point where you are playing at your peak. You almost have to double that to give yourself time to get warmed up and then to learn. Thats hard to pinpoint without KNOWING you though. Everyone is different in how much 'warm up' vs 'learn time' they will get out of a session. It might be better, IMHO, to try to find like 3 days a week where you can play 2-3 hours and spend like the other days looking at your play from those longer sessions. There is just something that cant be gained with single long sessions. Again, this is IMO and this is beyond the scope of the OP. On March 21 2012 13:45 Danglars wrote: Put differently, some pro gamers make mechanics the cornerstone of their play, and others go a different route but have their mechanics at a level where it doesn't hinder them enough to keep them from highest play. Fully agree with that section about what pros to watch. Keep challenging us in the community (that read the good threads) to accept no substitute until we've trained to have the best mechanics possible =) Ya exactly. I think people often see a good player and say too simple a statement like, "See, the Panzer General isn't fast but he wins vs amazing players so you don't need to be fast so why worry about that." Statements like that often are used to justify over learning one area that you feel you are stronger at or enjoy more. I see people poo-poo on that 'slow but smart' players in the other way as well and it is just as invalid. Its really important to always be aware of the strengths of a player and learn from those. Its a fallacy to focus on the strength of a player and allow that justify weakness. That is a logical trap that many people fall into in learning and I can't express enough how important it is to always be questioning your own assumptions about your learning process so that you find and squash those thoughts in yourself. It is a fun fact that Br3ezy is by far a player that places mechanics as the corner stone of his play and I place the other aspects as the cornerstone of my play. We both have said to each other many times that we are of invaluable help to each other because of our ying/yang nature. When he watches his own play he will often note how he would have won if he controlled the battle better or multitasked harder. He would say that in the face of going pure marine vs speed bane / queens (for creep) / Infestor. If I was in the same spot, my first thought would be how to change my build or scout better so that I didn't have to be in that situation. I can't express how helpful it is for me to get help from him and I am sure he would say the same in return. We see the true flaws in each others play ♥. I encourage all of you to listen to the people that look at your play and point out something that seems true but pointless because of (he said improve my micro and multitasking when it was really my build that was bad / he said my build was awful and I should have done X tech instead of Y tech when I saw Z but really I could have won had I just spread better and had a crisper macro cycle). They might be pointing something out that you think is not relevant but if you stop and ask if they are at least right that you COULD have done that as well and it would be stronger... then they have found the weakness you are hiding from yourself. The reason I helped him right this guide is I have been going through the process outlined in the guide and I have watched my rather low eapm go from a lowish number average to another number 30 eapm higher in a period of about 6 weeks. Lets leave the specifics of that out of here because I don't like blushing (because of shame or brag you will never know! [shame]), but I am a personal testament to the fact that watching your own fpvods and streams of highly skilled mechanical players is by far the best way to quickly improve the mechanical aspects of your game. On March 19 2012 03:46 S. aureus wrote: I am really appreciating the time and energy you put into this article. I especially appreciated the "focused" nature (as the title infers) on strictly mechanics. Thank you! One thing I plan to point out when we update this thread is that this is kinda the counter thread to a thread/guide Ver made a long time ago. It was called 'how to improve' and the information he has in there on how to learn strategy is beyond amazing. He touches on mechanics in his guide but the parts on learning decision making / builds / reactions is, in my opinion, the best method outlined anywhere in the StarCraft community. http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=135766 Please read this guide if you guys have not. I know br3ezy and I said an update would come last weekend. Well, Im moving rather suddenly. That weekend is now delayed. We will update and monitor this thread for pretty much ever so sorry for the delay but it is a temporary one. | ||
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FalconPunch
United States134 Posts
On March 19 2012 10:27 acgFork wrote: Last summer, I spent countless hourS wasting time and not practicing properly. By september, I was still Plat. I quit in October and I'm starting SC2 all over again, mainly because its awesome and I love the community. I'm at the same level as a gold leaguer atm, but I'm in Plat. My goal is to reach Diamond by May/June, only playing between 30 minutes and an hour each day. I started playing this weekend and my plan is to find a build for each matchup and practice them until I'm comfortable, and then try the ladder. I have a notebook that I use to analyze each of my games and what I need to change. In your opinion, would this goal be achievable, given my constraints? And what should I focus on to get the most out of my practice time? Thank you. Yes. Honestly, Diamond is not that hard to achieve. What race do you play? As you have already planned, I suggest having one, maybe two, opening builds for each matchup, and just grind games out. It would be better if it is a solid macro-oriented build.. this way, you will be more likely to improve than if you say went 6 pool every game (or something cheesy). Have a solid game-plan for each matchup, and try sticking to it best you can. Don't try like 10 different strategies because you will not get enough practice for 1 specific strategy. You want to end up with 1 really good strategy that will propel you into diamond.. from there you can branch out to other strategies. The goal is to improve consistently, so try strategies that improve your overall gameplay rather than winning. Practice improving your macro. Don't let your minerals or gas get over 1000. Trying perfecting larva injects, creep spreads, etc. Find your weaknesses, and work on fixing them. 1/2 hour to 1 hour per day is plenty of time. I started playing this game back in the beta and I was pretty bad. I watched pro games as well as tutorials. I was a protoss player back then, and my 2 main openers were 4 gate and 3 gate robo. I never used a different strategy. I got into diamond pretty easily I would say. Not long after masters league was introduced, I started watching FP vods of pros, mainly Idra because he had commentary. It inspired me to play better and to switch races to zerg. In the beginning, I was really bad with zerg because of the inject mechanics.. I could never keep up. But I worked on it slowly and surely like you did, about 1 hour of play every day, and in about a month or 2, I got masters. I watched a lot of GSL and Idra videos during this initial learning period. My weakest matchup was against P and I watched a few ZvP lessons (12 weeks with the pros by Mr Bitter) to work on the weaknesses. Even now, I still watch GSL and other pro games as well as FPvods to try to get better. Although I get frustrated when I lose stupid games (Protoss deathball really is invincible :D), at the end of the day I do realize that I didn't play well enough that game to win it. | ||
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Demonhunter04
1530 Posts
On March 19 2012 05:47 vaderseven wrote: Try this: type asd over and over as fast as you can. Congrats, you have now spammed up to ~1,400 apm. Not even joking. Don't think its a muscle or hand speed thing. Its mental. If you can hit a single keyboard button eight times a second, you are unusually fast. Just saying....cuz 1,400 APM is about 23 APS. | ||
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PeZuY
935 Posts
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