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[Exp] Using Biology to increase APM - Page 2

Forum Index > SC2 General
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Ruyguy
Profile Blog Joined January 2011
Canada988 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-02-27 07:41:28
February 27 2011 07:41 GMT
#21
Just to add to the guitar analogy. I was playing guitar for like 4 years constantly (not anymore) and I agree with the starting off slowly, and learning the song and getting comfortable with it. But after you have almost memorized a song, in order to play it better I used to push myself and play it faster and faster, maybe because I was bored with the initial tempo, but in the end I found I was way more comfortable playing the song. I totally agree with what MobiusOne is saying to increase your APM.
MobiusOne
Profile Joined September 2010
United States106 Posts
February 27 2011 07:51 GMT
#22
You guys are missing the point.
The point here is not to improve your multi task / mechanics, its to improve your muscle memory. By spamming hotkeys you are doing just that. When you have the APM (box) down then you can start praciticing micro/macro/multi task(fill in the box)


exactly.
"Macro while you macro all day every day"
Maetl
Profile Joined August 2010
United States93 Posts
February 27 2011 08:07 GMT
#23
On February 27 2011 16:02 SonuvBob wrote:
A lot of BW players had success with this a few years ago: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=56230


That is more or less what I did, and still do. I will play games against a computer, sometimes for hours, just macroing and keeping my APM up. You can throw in things like keeping a group of zerglings or mutas moving at all times as well. Dull, but it worked for me. I am still not that good about finding the best actions, but I can play at 200+ APM without a problem, and I still feel there is a lot of room for improvement.
billy5000
Profile Blog Joined December 2010
United States865 Posts
February 27 2011 09:11 GMT
#24
Before I saw this video of korean progamers play (
), I've always thought spamming wasn't very efficient.

But now I think the OP is fairly accurate on spamming. It really does seem to help you in the run long by making spamming a habit to the point where it's done unconsciously.

However, I'm still not sure as to how to spam on the keyboard. The video above shows players just refreshing their control groups again and again. But what I don't understand is why they double tap a number key for certain buildings or units while just tapping the rest only once (without moving the screen).

Can anyone clarify how spamming is done?
Tiger got to hunt, bird got to fly; Man got to sit and wonder, 'Why, why, why?' Tiger got to sleep, bird got to land; Man got to tell himself he understand. Vonnegut
Zrana
Profile Blog Joined August 2010
United Kingdom698 Posts
February 27 2011 09:16 GMT
#25
I like the idea (and tbh i think its worth a try even if it doesn't work), but as a science undergrad you should maybe do some testing and provide solid evidence that this actually has an effect.
MobiusOne
Profile Joined September 2010
United States106 Posts
February 27 2011 10:02 GMT
#26
I like the idea (and tbh i think its worth a try even if it doesn't work), but as a science undergrad you should maybe do some testing and provide solid evidence that this actually has an effect.


This is the point of the APM challenge, to test this out.. please read the thread before you post?
"Macro while you macro all day every day"
Phanekim
Profile Joined April 2003
United States777 Posts
February 27 2011 10:13 GMT
#27
i thought whatever OP said was already quite intuitive already....but myabe i have a biology background.

good post but maybe its just be but i thought this was already obvious.
i like cheese
TzTz
Profile Blog Joined April 2010
Germany511 Posts
February 27 2011 11:48 GMT
#28
Player name:TzTz
Race: Random
League:Diamond
AvgAPM:88
Buddhist
Profile Joined April 2010
United States658 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-02-27 12:04:48
February 27 2011 12:00 GMT
#29
Spamming the keyboard is just as detrimental as spamming the mouse. Speed is not spamming, it's just the time it takes for you to make an action in-game after you realize you want to take the action.

Obviously if you practice spamming, you'll get better at spamming. That doesn't mean you're faster in any way.

What people should do to practice is to try reacting to things they want to do without any delay.

Edit: Unless you guys are talking about building muscle memory? I don't think anyone here needs to do that. If you can type without looking at your keyboard, you don't need to build muscle memory, lol. No one here should be limited in speed by that. That's like being concerned that your eyes are the things that don't move fast enough in game: there's just no way that that is the factor slowing you down.

Or maybe that's just me, since I've been a computer gamer for 10 years?
Candles
Profile Joined February 2011
United Kingdom103 Posts
February 27 2011 12:25 GMT
#30
Candles
Race: Terran
League: Bronze
AvgAPM: 34.3
Phayze
Profile Blog Joined June 2009
Canada2029 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-02-27 12:33:57
February 27 2011 12:32 GMT
#31
SladeR
Race: Protoss
League: Master
avgAPM: 172.4

Remember that the apm counter in game is something like 40% lower than your actual apm .
I feel that spamming early in my iccup days are the only reason I have over 200 apm. I dont need to spam now, but In team games I do something very similar, I spam real hard in team games. 1) games are usually shorter. 2) there is alot more going on in the beginning, and in the midgame so the handspeed is really required. 3) it's just a good platform in a non-competitive scenario to push your apm.

and buddhist, how fast can you go 1a2a3a4a5a6a7a8a9a0a. That is muscle memory, or 1 p 2p 3p 4p 5p with zero mistypes.
Proud member of the LGA-1366 Core-i7 4Ghz Club
Saechiis
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
Netherlands4989 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-02-27 12:41:28
February 27 2011 12:32 GMT
#32
On February 27 2011 21:00 Buddhist wrote:
Spamming the keyboard is just as detrimental as spamming the mouse. Speed is not spamming, it's just the time it takes for you to make an action in-game after you realize you want to take the action.

Obviously if you practice spamming, you'll get better at spamming. That doesn't mean you're faster in any way.

What people should do to practice is to try reacting to things they want to do without any delay.

Edit: Unless you guys are talking about building muscle memory? I don't think anyone here needs to do that. If you can type without looking at your keyboard, you don't need to build muscle memory, lol. No one here should be limited in speed by that. That's like being concerned that your eyes are the things that don't move fast enough in game: there's just no way that that is the factor slowing you down.

Or maybe that's just me, since I've been a computer gamer for 10 years?


You're basically saying there's no difference between the muscle memory of a progamer and someone that can type without looking, surely you don't think that is true?

Spamming is about the speed at which you can hit certain keys, automatizing the process till there's no more thought process behind it. It is also about monitoring your production whilst looking elsewhere. It will free up processing power of your brain for tactical decisions and micro, whilst macro becomes more of a thoughtless process like walking.

I do agree though that speed mostly bottlenecks in your brain rather than your fingers. If you have meticulously planned out an APM intensive build you'll automatically push your hands to the limit since you're trying to fulfill all preset actions within a given timeframe.
I think esports is pretty nice.
FALAPARK
Profile Joined January 2010
United States224 Posts
February 27 2011 12:53 GMT
#33
The OP makes a lot of sense, as a broodwar player I used to have around 250+ almost sometimes reaching 300+ but the problem is that if you try to get a 300+ out of a sudden your hands will hurt so much that you will have to stop, and I'm not saying get 300+ and stop I mean keeping the same apm throughout the entire game, this is a personal story of mine, YOUR HANDS WILL HURT BABY!!!!!!!
Johnnybb
Profile Joined August 2010
Denmark486 Posts
March 27 2011 15:44 GMT
#34
Good read
C5Five
Profile Joined March 2011
England53 Posts
March 27 2011 16:32 GMT
#35
Take amphetamines.

Your APM will skyrocket. I promise
Tracedragon
Profile Joined December 2010
United States948 Posts
March 27 2011 18:03 GMT
#36
This is the point of APM spamming. Muscle memory. As a pianist, there are songs that require you to practise by spamming scales and arpeggios over and over again, as fast as humanly possible, to keep up with the pace of the song. StarCraft is no different to. Good read and good advice, OP. (:
Do the impossible, see the invisible. Row, row, fight the power!
DestroManiak
Profile Joined December 2010
257 Posts
March 27 2011 19:08 GMT
#37
Im a 3650 master player with an average apm of 60
It is always hilarious to see my opponent rocking +300 apm only to be defeated by someone with 60 apm
frdrk
Profile Joined March 2011
Denmark17 Posts
March 27 2011 19:51 GMT
#38
The way to see this is you have two types of APM. One is potential APM and the other is effective APM.
Potential APM: Your actual real-life hand speed between hitting one key then hitting the next.
Effective APM: The actual keystrokes that have in-game significance (Mostly different actions after eachother.)

This exercise is clearly designed to increase your potential APM, because while you currently might think that your APM is 'enough' because you can't use more APM anyway, you're putting an artificial block on your ability to multitask. You'll improve your effective APM, sure, but it will be a slower process when you're limited both by game routine AND physical hand-speed.

Think of athletes not training directly for their sport, but instead doing cardiovascular training alongside resistance training to improve their physical frame for success. Sports scientists often look at training as a 2-cycle improvement. Improve frame, improve actual skill. Repeat.

I spam my APM because of this reasoning, and I've been looking at APM in two perspectives since I started. My first placement matches when I bought SC2 had an average APM of maybe 60-70 and now I'm averaging 140-150 over the duration of all my games, and my effective use is maybe 100-110 now as opposed to 40-50 back then.
Moscow 5 - the most entertaining team I have ever watched.
Aberu
Profile Blog Joined April 2010
United States968 Posts
March 27 2011 19:52 GMT
#39
Here's a tip, put a space in between the ":" and the number because you have smilies all over your post, and it's difficult to make sense of it.
srsly
NewbieOne
Profile Blog Joined December 2010
Poland560 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-03-27 21:47:46
March 27 2011 21:44 GMT
#40
1.3k silver (EU), 30 average APM.

This despite the ability to touch type at 100 wpm.

In Warcraft 3, the guys I beat typically had 2-4 times my APM, sometimes more. I would get to 250 in critical moments (analysis of Battleships UMS, where you controlled a single unit that, depending on your style, could be forced to be active all the time and under constant supervision, showed weird high numbers, probably not credible) but the average was around 40 for the first couple of years, then increasing to 50, 60... at the critical height of my skill, I had a 70 but this dropped later. In SC2, I don't think I've ever exceeded 200 in current APM, I also have a low one in the early moments of the game, when everybody else actually has it high, plus, I don't do anything when there's not much to be done (preferring to relax rather than keep up the pressure), resulting in actual 0 current APM from time to time. Also, I actually try to give the fewest commands possible in battle.
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