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Manually stacking Harvesters on Patches - Page 2

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confusedcrib
Profile Blog Joined August 2010
United States1307 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-01-29 22:59:21
January 29 2011 22:58 GMT
#21
This is off topic, but I loved one game watching huk micro his scouting probe to force the opponents second worker to go to a different mineral patch by constantly half mining off all of his opponents mineral patches, gosu x 1000 or what? I guess that's what you get for a 500 APM spam
I'm a writer for TeamLiquid, you've probably heard of me
Yoshi Kirishima
Profile Blog Joined July 2009
United States10383 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-01-29 23:21:42
January 29 2011 23:10 GMT
#22
They're unsyncing? I'm pretty sure it's just the new workers that are being built screw up the others. If not, then wow, we got to pay even more attention to make sure no unsyncing happens!

Thanks Zelniq for the info, but I still don't quite get why they unsync. Are you saying that, the "response" time of the workers is not immediate? And so you need to be very precise to make sure when they respond is when the patch is available to be mined?

Edit: @ confusedcrib

OMG That is so cool! great idea I should try that :D haha
Mid-master streaming MECH ONLY + commentary www.twitch.tv/yoshikirishima +++ "If all-in fails, all-in again."
Jaeger
Profile Joined December 2009
United States1150 Posts
January 29 2011 23:20 GMT
#23
There are a few mineral patches on a few maps I believe are too close and 2 workers will eventually unsync if the neighboring patches are clear, I think the closest patch on blistering sands is like this.

If all nearby patches are in use workers will wait at an in use patch as long as the worker there is halfway done mining.

There is definitely a benefit, for instance with protoss it's the difference between being able to do 9pylon 13gate scout 14 gas with constant probe production or having a bump where you don't have enough minerals to start the 15th probe on time and have to start your gas at 15 to have constant probe production.
https://www.dotabuff.com/players/8137911
Yoshi Kirishima
Profile Blog Joined July 2009
United States10383 Posts
January 29 2011 23:25 GMT
#24
Ok thanks for explaining Also, sup Jaeger! Is that you from CC? tis Yoshi
Mid-master streaming MECH ONLY + commentary www.twitch.tv/yoshikirishima +++ "If all-in fails, all-in again."
Powster
Profile Joined April 2010
United States650 Posts
January 29 2011 23:55 GMT
#25
Took me a while at first to learn the timing but now its kinda easy.. My best was 3 stacks in my first 8 probes.. I am pretty sure its at least a 50 mineral advantage.
DaemonX
Profile Joined September 2010
545 Posts
January 30 2011 02:08 GMT
#26
On January 30 2011 07:18 Zelniq wrote:
you can always have 2 workers stay on 1 patch, it just requires precise timing so that the mineral patch is never already being mined when the other worker arrives to try to mine it. if it is, it'll go seek a new patch to mine if there is one available. that's smart design actually.

the method I use to set it up so that 2 workers will always rotate on 1 close patch and I never have to worry about it again is simply to send the 2nd worker at the patch so that there's only a SLIGHT delay (as in practically the smallest amount of time) between when one worker finishes mining the patch and the other comes in to start mining it. The timing has to be perfect otherwise it won't work: you can't have a worker mining IMMEDIATELY (as in 0 downtime of mining) after, nor can the delay between mining be too long either. What I do is try to get it as close to being precise as possible when I first double up on a patch, then adjust the worker that's coming in too early by hitting S and immediately clicking the patch again, to get the timing right. The time between when you hit S and when you tell it to go back to mining depends on how early the worker was going in to mine. Learning this takes practice, as well as doing all of it efficiently without missing a beat on building drones while doing so.
Thanks for your input man, always appreciated, but I think I don't understand.

What is superior to hitting S than to simply spam-right-clicking the worker onto the patch until it syncs after the other guy leaves?

PS I still pull off FE-mass queens on steppes of war thanks to you
idonthinksobro
Profile Joined December 2010
3138 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-01-30 02:15:36
January 30 2011 02:12 GMT
#27
long term its bad anyway because some patches will be mined out faster. Also it requires lots of apm and if you missclick once all the apm that probably could have been used better is kinda wasted and you lose more than you probably achieve with doing it. (talking about stacking with the first 6 workers)

Only worth it if you are going for a ridicilous rush to get some stuff 2-3 seconds faster.
Reason.SC2
Profile Joined April 2010
Canada1047 Posts
January 30 2011 02:15 GMT
#28
Why not shift-queue commands to make sure they don't go to other patches?

shift-return cargo-click patch-return cargo-click patch-return cargo-click patch. Should do the job.
Befree
Profile Joined April 2010
695 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-01-30 02:45:25
January 30 2011 02:44 GMT
#29
I've noticed mine usually desync if I start the mining on one slightly off the direct path between the mineral patch and the CC. So like the exaggerated case would be if your command center is to the right of the mineral field, and you begin harvesting with your second SCV on the top side of the minerals. The greater distance would desync the process. I've found even very slightly off the path will often mess it all up.

So now I make sure my scv is positioned directly in the line between the mineral patch and the CC.
Zelniq
Profile Blog Joined August 2005
United States7166 Posts
January 30 2011 03:04 GMT
#30
On January 30 2011 11:08 DaemonX wrote:
Show nested quote +
On January 30 2011 07:18 Zelniq wrote:
you can always have 2 workers stay on 1 patch, it just requires precise timing so that the mineral patch is never already being mined when the other worker arrives to try to mine it. if it is, it'll go seek a new patch to mine if there is one available. that's smart design actually.

the method I use to set it up so that 2 workers will always rotate on 1 close patch and I never have to worry about it again is simply to send the 2nd worker at the patch so that there's only a SLIGHT delay (as in practically the smallest amount of time) between when one worker finishes mining the patch and the other comes in to start mining it. The timing has to be perfect otherwise it won't work: you can't have a worker mining IMMEDIATELY (as in 0 downtime of mining) after, nor can the delay between mining be too long either. What I do is try to get it as close to being precise as possible when I first double up on a patch, then adjust the worker that's coming in too early by hitting S and immediately clicking the patch again, to get the timing right. The time between when you hit S and when you tell it to go back to mining depends on how early the worker was going in to mine. Learning this takes practice, as well as doing all of it efficiently without missing a beat on building drones while doing so.
Thanks for your input man, always appreciated, but I think I don't understand.

What is superior to hitting S than to simply spam-right-clicking the worker onto the patch until it syncs after the other guy leaves?

PS I still pull off FE-mass queens on steppes of war thanks to you

if you spam right click then it'll start mining too fast after the other worker finishes mining, and then the next time it comes around or so will try to find another patch.
ModeratorBlame yourself or God
redeux
Profile Joined November 2010
United States148 Posts
January 30 2011 03:17 GMT
#31
On January 30 2011 06:38 J.E.G. wrote:
I usually set my waypoint to the patch who's assigned probe returns at the same time the new probe pops. This is usually pretty close timing to get two drones per patch, but you might have to manually tell a probe to stay on a patch instead of the ai taking it to another patch farther away and possibly on the other side of the mineral field.

When doing the initial spread i just take a probe from a far patch to use as a scout to reduce the amount of apm needed


The things I would do to be able to have probes mining my mineral line at the start of the game and be able to get drones per patch.

But in all seriousness, this has been something I've been doing since launch but if they unsync after i sync'ed them then I just let them be so I don't waste any more mining time.
former masters zerg na/eu. took extended break, getting back into things.1v1 / 2v2 stream: twitch.tv/redeuxtv
SushilS
Profile Joined November 2010
2115 Posts
January 30 2011 03:26 GMT
#32
On January 30 2011 06:41 Lucid90 wrote:
I call them retard drones. This is what a normal situation for me looks like:

Me: Okay listen up drone. We need as much as minerals as possible right now, so im assigning you to a closer mineral patch. There currently is another drone mining it, but if we time it just right we can have both of you mining the same patch without anyone waiting for the other. It's more efficient to mine the close mineral patch than the further ones, which I know you like doing, but we need the minerals.
Drone: HUUURR OKAY ILL GO THERE DUURRR
*arives at the mineral patch*
HUURRR ACTUALLY EVEN THOUGH YOU TOLD ME TO MINE HERE, I THINK I'D RATHER NOT DERPDERP

every single time this happens
even when I tell both drones to mine the patch they still leave. You need to micro your drones really well or just give up because they are fucking retarded. I usually choose the ladder.

Hahaha. made me lol this one...
iceiceice: I’m going to make this short; I am the one true tinker player.
sockfolder
Profile Joined September 2010
United States9 Posts
January 30 2011 03:26 GMT
#33
I actually researched this a fair amount. The reason that they will split up sometimes is because mining time actually varies slightly for each trip. So, if you have one worker mining right after another, and the former worker gets a 'lucky' short mining trip, you will have a collision. When you have very few miners, a collision of two workers will result in the arriving one seeking a new patch, even if it would only have to wait a split second. Sadly, one collision and gains from stacking are erased and then some.

As far as why mining time varies, that is hard to say. My guess is that it is due to rounding based on small differences in the location where they mine. Note that though it looks like the workers move back and forth on the same path, there could actually be ~pixel length variations in their movement. To be fair though, I haven't tested this hypothesis =).
PiLoKo
Profile Joined January 2011
Mexico144 Posts
January 30 2011 04:57 GMT
#34
I actually like doing this since I saw Jinro doing it this GSL, but I have no idea if there is actually any real advantage for doing it, the only real case where I can see it fit is with Terran, where if I can have those mineral a little earlier before depot, 12 VCE wont wait a sec.
I like to troll in-game :)
Feos
Profile Joined July 2010
Germany71 Posts
January 09 2012 04:53 GMT
#35
I know this thread is almost a year old but I didnt really open a new one.
But still I think this is a topic not many are paying attention to. At the beginning of a game still many progamers just vary their rally point but wont really _stack_ their worker on the nearer stacks. i dont understand how still so many spam select/deselect and wont use their apm to assist the worker AI (rather correct/improve it).

why it is more efficient is explained here:
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=176290#8
in that topic they also assess that it is really essential not just to spam rightclick with ANY worker on a nearer stack. you should rather try to minimize "down times" (while you are spamming rightclick your harvester isnt working so resulting in a mineral loss).

i have to admit i am a real SaSe fanboy :D i really enjoy his stream and when you watch him you can see that he is VERY good with his probes. he even corrects phases of the probes harvesting cycle. for example if 2 probes are almost at the same time at the same patch, he will send the one in front to bypass the nearer patch to the one next to it so the later probe starts mining directly on the nearer patch and not wandering around.
for some ppl this all may seem stupid but if you can do it, why not? rather spam 300 apm with select commands? :/

so i just randomly took one game and cut out the opening from sases stream. as i said he does this every game.



i searched a bit but didnt find any better and more recent thread. sorry if this was unnecessary.
Luminex
Profile Joined September 2011
Germany4 Posts
March 30 2012 11:23 GMT
#36
8 patch fields 8 workers.....after this the microed workers are still on the near patchfield. If the max workers (7-8) ar not built and patches are empty, then the AI saturat them on the patchfields...

But If you have more than 8 ore more workers on the field (i.e. 15 Workers, but only 6 on the patchfiled) ---the 6 mining workers can be microed on patchfields like you want...

This isn´t 100%, but try itself...and sorry for bad english
Adonminus
Profile Joined January 2012
Israel543 Posts
March 30 2012 11:39 GMT
#37
Just practice it, keeping an eye always on the workers, and stacking them at the right time. Sometime your probe might not stack, so you can just let it go mine the empty mineral patch, it's not much of a problem.

Anyway, the key is practice, I don't have any specific trick to do it, I just started doing it and after many games I already do it quite perfectly. I usually stack workers and control them until all there's 2 workers on each mineral patch, and in pvp even 3 workers on the distant ones.

On a note, you shouldn't really worry about worker stacking until master league.
Uncultured
Profile Joined September 2010
United States1340 Posts
March 30 2012 11:40 GMT
#38
It's just easier to get good at stacking, then worry about waiting for all the minerals to be occupied before beginning stacking on close patches. Once you get decent at spam clicking a probe to a patch at the right time, it wont bounce around. When a prove is coming back from gathering, and about to mine a patch, click on it, and spam right-click the mineral and it will stay there, if you have to be sure.

The reason why I find it easy is because there's nothing else to be doing in the game at that point.
Don't you rage when you lose too? -FruitDealer
Tobberoth
Profile Joined August 2010
Sweden6375 Posts
March 30 2012 11:41 GMT
#39
On March 30 2012 20:23 Luminex wrote:
8 patch fields 8 workers.....after this the microed workers are still on the near patchfield. If the max workers (7-8) ar not built and patches are empty, then the AI saturat them on the patchfields...

But If you have more than 8 ore more workers on the field (i.e. 15 Workers, but only 6 on the patchfiled) ---the 6 mining workers can be microed on patchfields like you want...

This isn´t 100%, but try itself...and sorry for bad english

This depends on timing. You can have 8 workers working 4 patches without them bouncing, but it's hard to make it stable. You pretty much need the workers perfectly synced form the start where one reaches and start mining just as the previous one leaves. If there's a slight gap, this eventually leads to a worker moving.
Tobberoth
Profile Joined August 2010
Sweden6375 Posts
March 30 2012 11:44 GMT
#40
On January 30 2011 06:52 Silmakuoppaanikinko wrote:
Seriously, I wouldn't be surprised if the advantage of this is actually lower than the advantage of pooling exactly at 200 instead of at 210 or something like that.

I do split though, but that's more to get a feeling for the mouse when I start.

I am completely positive by the way that if you're zerg and if you spawn with your minerals above or below you the drone travel time due to larva location makes up more than manually stacking.

It was shown in a previous thread that proper probe micro (like Sases) lets you do a 12 gate opening, but putting the gate down already on 11, or something like that. So it's pretty significant, but the advantage is short and I don't think it matters for most openings.
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