So far so good, but if you are a new player (like me) you can often forget about going through your mental checklist and you don't have day[9] to scream over your head like djWHEAT had in that episode. Fear not - you now have the next best thing.
Disclaimer: day[9]'s Mental Checklist Coacher is an independent program. It does not interact with StarCraft 2, it does not read or write StarCraft 2's memory, it does not intercept or modify StarCraft 2 data stream. Furthermore it does not interface with Battle.net in any way. It is in compliance with Battle.net Terms of Use.
Note that tournaments and other organized events may ban this program from usage. Consult the rules of a specific contest or event for more information.
Future plans: - Pausing - Automatically account for game speed - One time playback sounds - Fading out after a given time - so you can get the head start but then you are on your own
FAQ: Where can I get new sounds? - You can record them yourself using "Sound Recorder" utility found in Windows. - You can use this tutorial to record text to speech from windows - You can download some files and use them as long as they are in *.wav format
Can I post my awesome sound pack? Sure.
Edit Dec 13, 2010: Added source code. Edit Dec 14, 2010: Added customization section. Edit Jan 19, 2010: Version 1.0 posted.
i'm not certain you can use this in game... isn't this against blizz's anti-hacking policy?
if it isn't though it seems like it could be pretty useful to train yourself. still, i'm not going to use it until i know for sure if i won't lose an account for it.
It's just as illegal as using a paper with a build order written down or an alarm clock. It's completely unrelated to Starcraft files and doesn't touch the game at all.
I don't need this as much anymore, but it would indeed be awesome to have Day9's voice reminding you to do stuff nonetheless. =D
I see I need to clarify this. I haven't looked at the policy cause I didn't thought that it will be an issue and intuitively it shouldn't - the program does nothing more than play 4 wav files over and over reminding you what to do. So nothing that is not achievable with Winamp (if you are willing to edit audio files to add silence in between). For that part I can provide everyone with the source code.
Also - if anyone has a link to anti-hacking policy so I can look at it, please share. I can't seem to Google it straight up.
Very nice first post and thanks for your effort! I might actually try this, played my first set of games after I took a break for a month and a half and man am I playing like crap, maybe this is just what I need;) But basically, it loops the reminders? or is it based on your actions?
I like the idea of this quite a bit. Its fairly cool. It would be nice to be able to set a timing thats different for the different races. Protoss probes with chronoboost is different than terran and much different than zerg's drone production. It could be useful for supply for all races, and then also quite nice for macro mechanics, especially larva spitting. Great idea, and I hope it helps some people.
On December 14 2010 11:19 iokke wrote: But basically, it loops the reminders? or is it based on your actions?
It loops reminders. Basing it on your action would be definitely against anti-hacking polices.
No way its against anti-hack policy then. It would be like saying that playing music that pumps you up is against anti-hacking policy since you play better pumped up
1) Get Day[9] to do the voice or use some samples of his.
2) Have it log keystrokes and be able to set it up to respond to those - for example the player could set it so that if you havn't typed "BS" for 40 seconds it will remind you to build a depot, if you haven't hit "4S" in the last 20 seconds it will remind you to train an SCV.
I am not sure that the mental checklist is actually a good practice. He may have meant it for lower level players so they just don't completely forget about an aspect of the game. I tried to incorporate it when using the multitasking trainer and it was a very inefficient use of attention. Obviously the strongest way is to play sooo much that you just remember each time without going through the algorithm. Right now i have just shortened it to production and then when i have finished everything i will look at supply and minimap.
I wouldn't say mental checklist is good practice. It's something you force yourself to do now, so that it's automatic later. So you should always do it, not ever skimp. If you're skipping parts of it, you're doing it wrong, and your game will suffer.
Have it log keystrokes and be able to set it up to respond to those - for example the player could set it so that if you havn't typed "BS" for 40 seconds it will remind you to build a depot, if you haven't hit "4S" in the last 20 seconds it will remind you to train an SCV.
I think if it logs your keystrokes that would be considered as cheating, because it reacts to your playing. Having a metronome or playing to a song to get into rhythm though doesn't react according to your playing so i don't think that would be considered cheating
Have it log keystrokes and be able to set it up to respond to those - for example the player could set it so that if you havn't typed "BS" for 40 seconds it will remind you to build a depot, if you haven't hit "4S" in the last 20 seconds it will remind you to train an SCV.
I think if it logs your keystrokes that would be considered as cheating, because it reacts to your playing. Having a metronome or playing to a song to get into rhythm though doesn't react according to your playing so i don't think that would be considered cheating
Not really, it's not modifying the game in any way and it's no more cheating than having someone stand behind you monitoring your worker and supply production and reminding you.
I think it's legal and can definitely help with reminding you to build workers. However I believe that when something costs or someone puts in a lot of mental effort and hard work to learn, the result will be a much better understanding of it then when you only learn it upto a minimum and can just "reproduce" it. Therefore I'd say that it might be harmful for those that really wanna get it ingrained in their systems. Another argument relates to effort, this kind of thing can make a person think, sweet easy my problem is solved. Removing part of the effort and focus required to reach excellence. And if it fails or turns out it will require more it can have a negative effect on their mental state. Just something to keep in mind for those thinking of using it, it is a crutch. One day you'll have to walk without them.
I like this. I think it's a pretty good idea. It sounds stupid with Microsoft Michelle, having Day[9] do it would be funny, especially if he sounded all panicky and stuff like "WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?!?! BUILD AN SCV! CHECK MONEY! CHECK FOOD! AND CHECK THE MAP" or the option of calm Day[9] where he is like "Okay, build SVC's, check money, check your food, and check the map" that would be pretty cool. Microsoft Michelle makes me tense after a while, makes me think of something like Skynet.
Nice tool, i like it alot. What would be nice if i could select some zerg 1's aswell. Some larvaspit, OV, Creepspred, etc. (alot more then terran, i hope it is posible).
I dont know if it is cheating but it helps alot to me, Thx dude ^^
On December 14 2010 11:15 SifySify wrote: I see I need to clarify this. I haven't looked at the policy cause I didn't thought that it will be an issue and intuitively it shouldn't - the program does nothing more than play 4 wav files over and over reminding you what to do. So nothing that is not achievable with Winamp (if you are willing to edit audio files to add silence in between). For that part I can provide everyone with the source code.
Also - if anyone has a link to anti-hacking policy so I can look at it, please share. I can't seem to Google it straight up.
Think of it this way...
If you can't use it when you play in a LAN tournament, then it most likely is illegal.
Sounds nice, ill definitely try it out. The thought has actually cross my mind so simple make a sound recorded with me saying something to remind myself of all these things then like 20 secs of silence and just looping it, but this seems more convenient.
On December 14 2010 11:15 SifySify wrote: I see I need to clarify this. I haven't looked at the policy cause I didn't thought that it will be an issue and intuitively it shouldn't - the program does nothing more than play 4 wav files over and over reminding you what to do. So nothing that is not achievable with Winamp (if you are willing to edit audio files to add silence in between). For that part I can provide everyone with the source code.
Also - if anyone has a link to anti-hacking policy so I can look at it, please share. I can't seem to Google it straight up.
Think of it this way...
If you can't use it when you play in a LAN tournament, then it most likely is illegal.
GOM doesn't let you bring girls into the booth with you; doesn't mean I can't have them under my desk while I'm laddering.
On December 14 2010 15:57 Creegz wrote: I like this. I think it's a pretty good idea. It sounds stupid with Microsoft Michelle, having Day[9] do it would be funny, especially if he sounded all panicky and stuff like "WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?!?! BUILD AN SCV! CHECK MONEY! CHECK FOOD! AND CHECK THE MAP" or the option of calm Day[9] where he is like "Okay, build SVC's, check money, check your food, and check the map" that would be pretty cool. Microsoft Michelle makes me tense after a while, makes me think of something like Skynet.
You should make it based on your APM, the higher your APM the chiller Day[9] would become, until when you reach 300 APM then Liquid`Tyler will step in and show you how it's done.
I personally found it too distracting to be practical in-game but found that I actually enjoy just listening to it. I also suspect that if you listened to it while you slept every night you'd have amazing dreams and your subconcious starcraft-fu would improve drastically.
On December 14 2010 11:17 origamiXD wrote: This could be more harmful than useful, it might cause you to grow a dependence on this program to do well.
I don't think so. The looping will only reinforce the "checklist" imo, though dependence would be bad. Maybe after people start using it they can say if it's hard to play without it?
I agree, Day[9]'s voice making love to my eardrums AND coaching the probes/pylons would be almost as good as cheese being a banable offense. :D
On December 14 2010 11:17 origamiXD wrote: This could be more harmful than useful, it might cause you to grow a dependence on this program to do well.
I don't think so. The looping will only reinforce the "checklist" imo, though dependence would be bad. Maybe after people start using it they can say if it's hard to play without it?
I agree, Day[9]'s voice making love to my eardrums AND coaching the probes/pylons would be almost as good as cheese being a banable offense. :D
i used it for 20 game, and after 20 games i played a bit better. So atleast it works for me personaly think its a bit depenable on the persoon aswell. Day9 would btw be a total baller (ofc he is that allready, but ok) if he helped you with the voice thing lol.
On December 14 2010 11:15 SifySify wrote: I see I need to clarify this. I haven't looked at the policy cause I didn't thought that it will be an issue and intuitively it shouldn't - the program does nothing more than play 4 wav files over and over reminding you what to do. So nothing that is not achievable with Winamp (if you are willing to edit audio files to add silence in between). For that part I can provide everyone with the source code.
Also - if anyone has a link to anti-hacking policy so I can look at it, please share. I can't seem to Google it straight up.
Think of it this way...
If you can't use it when you play in a LAN tournament, then it most likely is illegal.
On December 14 2010 11:15 SifySify wrote: I see I need to clarify this. I haven't looked at the policy cause I didn't thought that it will be an issue and intuitively it shouldn't - the program does nothing more than play 4 wav files over and over reminding you what to do. So nothing that is not achievable with Winamp (if you are willing to edit audio files to add silence in between). For that part I can provide everyone with the source code.
Also - if anyone has a link to anti-hacking policy so I can look at it, please share. I can't seem to Google it straight up.
Think of it this way...
If you can't use it when you play in a LAN tournament, then it most likely is illegal.
It's a coaching tool, not a hack. It's more illegal to use than it is to have a coach, both of which aren't allowed in the GOM booth during a game.
On December 14 2010 15:57 Creegz wrote: I like this. I think it's a pretty good idea. It sounds stupid with Microsoft Michelle, having Day[9] do it would be funny, especially if he sounded all panicky and stuff like "WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?!?! BUILD AN SCV! CHECK MONEY! CHECK FOOD! AND CHECK THE MAP" or the option of calm Day[9] where he is like "Okay, build SVC's, check money, check your food, and check the map" that would be pretty cool. Microsoft Michelle makes me tense after a while, makes me think of something like Skynet.
Haha, it should have the calm voice clips first, and then as the game progresses he gets more and more hyper.
On December 14 2010 15:57 Creegz wrote: I like this. I think it's a pretty good idea. It sounds stupid with Microsoft Michelle, having Day[9] do it would be funny, especially if he sounded all panicky and stuff like "WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?!?! BUILD AN SCV! CHECK MONEY! CHECK FOOD! AND CHECK THE MAP" or the option of calm Day[9] where he is like "Okay, build SVC's, check money, check your food, and check the map" that would be pretty cool. Microsoft Michelle makes me tense after a while, makes me think of something like Skynet.
Haha, it should have the calm voice clips first, and then as the game progresses he gets more and more hyper.
Now that is a plan, sir....we need to get him in on that idea...Day[9], if you read this thread....this specific thing needs to be created...thank you.
I took a look at other files - ones are not down loadable and the others have this music added :/
Anyhow, I can't just harvest day9's talking from his videos since its the violation of copy right. Also day9 is pretty hard to reach so if you day9's want his voice ask him for it (god knows I tried).
On December 16 2010 15:22 Soulish wrote: wouldn't it get horribly out of time though? Since it gets a little bit off every time it reminds you
Well - no (at least in theory).
The way this is done is that is the number of seconds you set is kind of a time slot for the specific sound. If you set a time slot to say 12 the sound will begin to play and if its not done within those 12 seconds it ends. If is is done the silence is added so the whole thing sums up to 12.
Why in theory? Cause a separate thread in the program and if windows misses waking a thread by a few milliseconds every time this can accumulate to a noticeable difference (something I hope to fix in the future).
Average resources in a 23 minute game with 2 expos (which is a lot for me) were 711. My micro kinda sucked though my enemy still owned himself on my forcefields. I was surprised how much it really helped me later in the game
these sort of programs are very helpful, but much like addons in WoW..... you rely too much on them in the end.
I was playing arena at around 1800 before i started using alot of PvP addons, then I started using some of the better ones and literally my team jumped to 2400 in a couple days. I had been letting the side down with my healing. Problem was that after a few weeks I relied so much on the addons that I couldn't play without them, so i had to slowly turn them off one by one. When i was back to barebones, we were at 2200 and stayed there. So I must have improved thanks to the addons, but I had to then re learn how to play without them again.
Excited at new version! I'll be tryin to record some Day9 daily sounds of pylons and probes (I'm a protoss...) and i'll post 'em here for everyone! I'm also gonna program a chronoboost one every 25 game seconds, and i'll probably just have one yelling at me to macro, haha.
This is an excellent coaching tool. I'll be using it in the background while I play against the AI, purposefully keeping my view away from my base as much as possible. Over time hope to speed up the intervals and see my macro game improve.
Having watched Wheat get overwhelmed by the new instructions and playstyle (but doing incredibly well all the same) and having experienced the same thing just now thanks to this program I have a feeling it would be detrimental for me to use it in actual play.
I know this isn't the remit of the program, but it would be lovely if you could add functionality for one-time sounds. For example "sacrifice overlord" after 6 minutes or "tech to lair" after 8 minutes or so.
On January 21 2011 06:45 Noterist wrote: I know this isn't the remit of the program, but it would be lovely if you could add functionality for one-time sounds. For example "sacrifice overlord" after 6 minutes or "tech to lair" after 8 minutes or so.
On January 20 2011 10:02 evanthebouncy! wrote: U know back in BW I used to change my unit-command.wav file to something different...
I changed zealot's commands to the song "kungfu fighting!" lolol, it's so cool
And I changed some other files, for instance, once in awhile a dragoon would speak "did u macro?" back at me lol
Lol this is hilarious. You can add "did you scout?" to your nex/cc/hatch and "are you teching?" to some other units and basically distribute a whole coach troughout your units.
I was wondering, if you would want to change the time numbers, so that it goes in accord with the ingame timer. As the gametimer (and therefore build times) runs faster than real seconds. Liquipedia II says, on fastest, it's 1.38 times faster than real speed.
On December 16 2010 22:50 SifySify wrote: I took a look at other files - ones are not down loadable and the others have this music added :/
Anyhow, I can't just harvest day9's talking from his videos since its the violation of copy right. Also day9 is pretty hard to reach so if you day9's want his voice ask him for it (god knows I tried).
On December 16 2010 15:22 Soulish wrote: wouldn't it get horribly out of time though? Since it gets a little bit off every time it reminds you
Well - no (at least in theory).
The way this is done is that is the number of seconds you set is kind of a time slot for the specific sound. If you set a time slot to say 12 the sound will begin to play and if its not done within those 12 seconds it ends. If is is done the silence is added so the whole thing sums up to 12.
Why in theory? Cause a separate thread in the program and if windows misses waking a thread by a few milliseconds every time this can accumulate to a noticeable difference (something I hope to fix in the future).
On January 21 2011 08:25 Kwanny wrote: I was wondering, if you would want to change the time numbers, so that it goes in accord with the ingame timer. As the gametimer (and therefore build times) runs faster than real seconds. Liquipedia II says, on fastest, it's 1.38 times faster than real speed.
To achieve this use the fact that you can put fractional numbers in the boxes. Just replace 1 second with 1 / 1.38 = 0,725 and so on. Should work as of this version the timer should be pretty precise.
On January 21 2011 08:25 Kwanny wrote: I was wondering, if you would want to change the time numbers, so that it goes in accord with the ingame timer. As the gametimer (and therefore build times) runs faster than real seconds. Liquipedia II says, on fastest, it's 1.38 times faster than real speed.
To achieve this use the fact that you can put fractional numbers in the boxes. Just replace 1 second with 1 / 1.38 = 0,725 and so on. Should work as of this version the timer should be pretty precise.
Of course, doing the maths isn't that hard, but it sure adds an inconvenience to the program, as a program's utility should revolve around it's features/ease of use.
On January 21 2011 08:25 Kwanny wrote: I was wondering, if you would want to change the time numbers, so that it goes in accord with the ingame timer. As the gametimer (and therefore build times) runs faster than real seconds. Liquipedia II says, on fastest, it's 1.38 times faster than real speed.
To achieve this use the fact that you can put fractional numbers in the boxes. Just replace 1 second with 1 / 1.38 = 0,725 and so on. Should work as of this version the timer should be pretty precise.
Of course, doing the maths isn't that hard, but it sure adds an inconvenience to the program, as a program's utility should revolve around it's features/ease of use.
Sounds sweet! I might give it a try in the future since this is one of the mayor issues I have. I'm not playing enough at the time though to test it properly.
EPT
and thanks for your effort!
