My mental checklist pretty much comprises of

1) Can you see anything happening that should make you panic?

If yes, panic.
If no, panic about the fact that you can't see what's happening.

Champ24

177 Posts

October 06 2010 13:25 GMT

#26

Sorry for a slight necro, but I have a reoccuring issue of being supply blocked during mid game. I don't really fall behind in spending minerals/gas or probe production, but I just get caught up in things and forget to throw down pylons. After it happens I throw down 3 to 4 to kind of catch up, but in reality that time is lost.

Can anyone throw a mental checklist tip out there that works for them so I can give it a whirl (such as a probe to a hotkey or something)? I seem to have separated building probes/units from building pylons and it's a very important step to miss. And I miss it often!

andrewf87

Australia22 Posts

December 11 2011 10:39 GMT

#27

Hey everyone, I understand this is an old post but I thought I would just post in here instead of making a new thread.

I am a gold player who is trying to improve, I have tried to use a mental checklist a little bit but I am finding I'm having a few problems with it. My current mental checklist is as follows:

1) Controls units
2) Build SCVs
3) Build units

I am trying to keep it simple at the moment but I plan to add more to. I find my attention is being taken away from my mental checklist by things like my build order etc and I often forget to go back to it. Des anyone have any advive on how I can prevent this?

Cheers

Tofugrinder

Austria899 Posts

December 11 2011 10:48 GMT

#28

On December 11 2011 19:39 andrewf87 wrote:
Hey everyone, I understand this is an old post but I thought I would just post in here instead of making a new thread.

I am a gold player who is trying to improve, I have tried to use a mental checklist a little bit but I am finding I'm having a few problems with it. My current mental checklist is as follows:

1) Controls units
2) Build SCVs
3) Build units

I am trying to keep it simple at the moment but I plan to add more to. I find my attention is being taken away from my mental checklist by things like my build order etc and I often forget to go back to it. Des anyone have any advive on how I can prevent this?

Cheers

forget about the build order in your league. Really focus on the mental checklist as long as it's not "in you". Just say something like "I want to 1rax expand and then add 2 additional rax" and that's it. Now you can really focus on your mental checklist this will help improve your macro automatically -> you make your circles and you still have too much money, well you probably need additional rax/starports etc

fyi if it's important: i'm only platin but I must say that that is what I did to get from silver to platin

Selendis

Australia509 Posts

December 11 2011 12:19 GMT

#29

I haven't actually doen this yet, but it is an important exercise so I'll give it a shot, if only on paper:

1. PMS -Production, pylons, Money, Sentry count. I have a big problem with missing my warp-in cool downs. I'm usually a few seconds late which leads to my money getting a bit too high, I also misprioritize my production and produce too many (which delays my tech and my techy units) or too little sentries (can lead to an early death from ling runbys and without ff's to block infantry, it can get my collosi killed). I am also grouping pylons with production since (for me) they roughly are in sync with one another.

2. MAXC -Map Awareness and eXpansion Control. What does the map look like? Does he have more expos than me? How long has he had those expansions? Where is his army? If I'm doing a number 2 right then I should be able to answer all these questions and correctly evaluate whether it's time to expand, harass, all-in or sit back and play defensive.

3. CP -Chronoboost and Probes. Probes are the least of my problems. Every time 17 game seconds pass, my left hand hits 1e. I actually have to consciously think about in order to stop it from happening. I blame the old UMS Map, Coach AI for this. I do however occasionally have problems with where my probes are (ie saturation in expos) and when I need to stop building them and switch to late game mode. Similarly, Chronoboost isn't a huge problem for me early game but in the mid and late game, my nexus energy gets way too high.

TuElite

Canada2123 Posts

December 11 2011 12:42 GMT

#30

I'm surprised to find out that Day9 thinks that having these kinds of pre-defined checklists is a good idea.

Looks like a completely retarded way to learn imo. Not only useless but very detrimental to your game imo.

gibb

Sweden288 Posts

December 11 2011 13:09 GMT

#31

On December 11 2011 21:42 TuElite wrote:
I'm surprised to find out that Day9 thinks that having these kinds of pre-defined checklists is a good idea.

Looks like a completely retarded way to learn imo. Not only useless but very detrimental to your game imo.

Any reasoning behind that statement?

mrGRAPE

Singapore293 Posts

December 11 2011 13:34 GMT

#32

Detrimental in what way? I suppose it COULD be detrimental if you are talking about purely focusing on the mental checklists and ignoring everything else that's happening in the game, but isn't that what learning the check list is about? The goal of the checklist in day9's tutorial is to allow a relatively new player the opportunity to learn the basic mechanics of the game early on so that when they get to a higher level then they can focus on the other aspects of the game.

Much of these checklists are very macro-orientated which is what low level players are struggling with - getting more units out, spending money and generally keeping their economy in shape. I doubt many masters/gm players actually make the effort to remember "gotta build probes, gotta pylon etc etc". After having spent time practising these basic checklist ideas, it'll probably be second nature to them anyways so while they are not actively thinking about them, they may still be actively performing those actions.

TuElite

Canada2123 Posts

December 11 2011 13:49 GMT

#33

On December 11 2011 22:34 mrGRAPE wrote:

Show nested quote +

I doubt many masters/gm players actually make the effort to remember "gotta build probes, gotta pylon etc etc". After having spent time practicing these basic checklist ideas, it'll probably be second nature to them anyways so while they are not actively thinking about them, they may still be actively performing those actions.

Yeah, that's kind of what I was thinking. I just don't understand the need for anyone to actively think/remind themselves about those things.

Someone told me once, you should constantly make workers, so... I just constantly make workers.... No need to think about it... That's just like 2+2 = 4, you don't need to remind yourself of that, you just know once someone tells you.

Thinking about not getting supply blocked imo is not an optimal way to learn, you should instead learn how munch food all the units are worth than just do the math, if you want to produce X units from Y numbers of buildings that takes Z time to produce, you'll know exactly when you'll need to build supply.

And it's detrimental in the way that you do not learn the optimal way, so you get used to a learning/practice system that is far from optimal. But that's just my opinion, I never tried any form of mental checklist, so I don't know... Could work for some I guess... I just think they're not learning as optimally as they could. hence why I was surprised that this idea comes from Day9.