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[Trick] Early Game +7% Mineral Boost - Page 21

Forum Index > SC2 General
Post a Reply
Prev 1 19 20 21 22 23 53 Next
juw
Profile Joined August 2010
76 Posts
September 13 2010 01:20 GMT
#401
Hope they patch this out. It does not even warrent the term "game mechanic"
awesomoecalypse
Profile Joined August 2010
United States2235 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-09-13 01:21:05
September 13 2010 01:20 GMT
#402
Since this stops being useful at saturation, it's only an early game mechanic, and a highly demanding one at that. I think this should be left the way it is, early game people just spam uselessly and this way they can spam usefully.


i'm curious why people think this is only useful in the early game. obviously, it will be viable for mules throughout, but it will also be just as useful any time you take an expansion, or any time you lose enough workers to badly desaturate your base.

i mean, obviously the apm requirements to keep it up while doing other things will be through the roof...

but there have been BW pros with well over 500 apm. JulyZerg, who just switched to SC2, regularly clocked in at significantly higher than that.

for such players, it isn't inconceivable that they could simultaneously mineral boost or sockfold or whatever we're calling it, while still performing ordinary marco/micro.

if so, 7% is a potentially fairly significant boost, if it applies to more than just the first few minutes of the game. Instead of getting you like 50 minerals you might not have had otherwise, it could, over the course of the game, get you more like a few hundred minerals you might not have had. Which is substantial in a game where people are doing everything they can to get an edge.
He drone drone drone. Me win. - ogsMC
SiNiquity
Profile Joined April 2010
United States734 Posts
September 13 2010 01:23 GMT
#403
Having done a ton of research on worker mechanics in this game, and since I haven't seen a full explanation of this technique, allow me to explain the game mechanics behind it.

How this trick works

Workers in the game go through 7 stages cyclically (that is, at the end of stage 7 the worker proceeds to stage 1) when harvesting resources. This is straight from the Galaxy Editor:
  1. Approach Resource - The initial stage where the worker travels to the resource.
  2. Wait at Resource - If the resource is already being harvested.
  3. Harvest - The harvest stage where the unit either plays the harvest mineral animation, or disappears into the vespene geyser.
  4. Wait to Return - The worker waits for some number of seconds which I shall refer to as N. This is a resource dependent stage (that is, it depends on a property of the resource). For minerals, N = 0.5, but for gas, N = 0.
  5. Wait for Drop Off - This stage is only executed if a drop-off location is not available (i.e there is no reachable Nexus, or the last Command Center is lifted).
  6. Approach Drop Off - Worker travels back to the base
  7. Drop Off - Worker deposits the resources into the base.


At the beginning of stage 4, the "Gather" ability changes into the "Return Cargo" ability, as the unit now has cargo in its possession. Thus by spamming C / Right-click repeatedly into the worker's action queue, one can skip stage 4 and jump immediately to stage 5.

Theory does not lie. This technique works. However, as a result, it will not work for gas.

Finally, I don't anticipate this will get patched. The only possible fixes I can imagine would involve either making the worker uncommandable during stage (unlikely; would make workers seem unresponsive in some instances), or delaying the "return cargo" icon until stage 5. However, in the latter case one could queue a move immediately after the harvest and then queue 'C' which would make the technique more difficult but not eliminate it entirely.

TL;DR: It works. Game on.
'i' before 'e' except after 'c' ~ it's scientifically proven.
Gnax
Profile Joined June 2010
Sweden490 Posts
September 13 2010 01:24 GMT
#404
speaking of APM. If you select all your workers and hold down the return cargo hotkey, you're APM on the in game APM meter will be something crazy like 1000+ for some reason.
Dox
Profile Blog Joined April 2010
Australia1199 Posts
September 13 2010 01:25 GMT
#405
Epic. Great find.
@NvDox | Plantronics Nv: Rossi . mOOnGLaDe . deth . JazBas | @NvSC2 | @NvCoD | @NvLeague | @NvHearthstone | @NvDotA2 | @PLT_MF
SiNiquity
Profile Joined April 2010
United States734 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-09-13 01:28:51
September 13 2010 01:28 GMT
#406
Addendum:
As a result, because you are shaving off at most 0.5 seconds from the resource harvest time, your relative income increase for this trick is 0.5 / H where H is the regular harvest time. This varies from 6.5 to 7 game seconds IIRC (I don't have the data in front of me at the moment), meaning you should see a 7 - 7.7% income increase, with closer mineral patches receiving more benefit.



'i' before 'e' except after 'c' ~ it's scientifically proven.
Zzoram
Profile Joined February 2008
Canada7115 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-09-13 01:30:37
September 13 2010 01:29 GMT
#407
On September 13 2010 10:20 awesomoecalypse wrote:
Show nested quote +
Since this stops being useful at saturation, it's only an early game mechanic, and a highly demanding one at that. I think this should be left the way it is, early game people just spam uselessly and this way they can spam usefully.


i'm curious why people think this is only useful in the early game. obviously, it will be viable for mules throughout, but it will also be just as useful any time you take an expansion, or any time you lose enough workers to badly desaturate your base.

i mean, obviously the apm requirements to keep it up while doing other things will be through the roof...

but there have been BW pros with well over 500 apm. JulyZerg, who just switched to SC2, regularly clocked in at significantly higher than that.

for such players, it isn't inconceivable that they could simultaneously mineral boost or sockfold or whatever we're calling it, while still performing ordinary marco/micro.

if so, 7% is a potentially fairly significant boost, if it applies to more than just the first few minutes of the game. Instead of getting you like 50 minerals you might not have had otherwise, it could, over the course of the game, get you more like a few hundred minerals you might not have had. Which is substantial in a game where people are doing everything they can to get an edge.


The fact that it would require hundreds of APM to do in addition to regular micro/macro makes it a non-issue for most players. If only the most mechanically skilled can use it, and they mostly only play against each other, then it doesn't matter for everyone else. Slow players can try it and lose because they'll slip up on regular macro or micro.

This is no different than Vulture and Mutalisk micro, it merely cuts down on turn animation speed, and should remain in the game.
TitleRug
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
United States651 Posts
September 13 2010 01:29 GMT
#408
Hey on Trump's stream the name the "7% trick/build" is sticking.
coLCruncher fighting!
Zzoram
Profile Joined February 2008
Canada7115 Posts
September 13 2010 01:31 GMT
#409
On September 13 2010 10:29 TitleRug wrote:
Hey on Trump's stream the name the "7% trick/build" is sticking.


7% build makes no sense because this isn't a build.
jrkirby
Profile Blog Joined August 2010
United States1510 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-09-13 01:33:53
September 13 2010 01:33 GMT
#410
On September 13 2010 10:23 SiNiquity wrote:
Having done a ton of research on worker mechanics in this game, and since I haven't seen a full explanation of this technique, allow me to explain the game mechanics behind it.

How this trick works

Workers in the game go through 7 stages cyclically (that is, at the end of stage 7 the worker proceeds to stage 1) when harvesting resources. This is straight from the Galaxy Editor:
  1. Approach Resource - The initial stage where the worker travels to the resource.
  2. Wait at Resource - If the resource is already being harvested.
  3. Harvest - The harvest stage where the unit either plays the harvest mineral animation, or disappears into the vespene geyser.
  4. Wait to Return - The worker waits for some number of seconds which I shall refer to as N. This is a resource dependent stage (that is, it depends on a property of the resource). For minerals, N = 0.5, but for gas, N = 0.
  5. Wait for Drop Off - This stage is only executed if a drop-off location is not available (i.e there is no reachable Nexus, or the last Command Center is lifted).
  6. Approach Drop Off - Worker travels back to the base
  7. Drop Off - Worker deposits the resources into the base.


At the beginning of stage 4, the "Gather" ability changes into the "Return Cargo" ability, as the unit now has cargo in its possession. Thus by spamming C / Right-click repeatedly into the worker's action queue, one can skip stage 4 and jump immediately to stage 5.

Theory does not lie. This technique works. However, as a result, it will not work for gas.

Finally, I don't anticipate this will get patched. The only possible fixes I can imagine would involve either making the worker uncommandable during stage (unlikely; would make workers seem unresponsive in some instances), or delaying the "return cargo" icon until stage 5. However, in the latter case one could queue a move immediately after the harvest and then queue 'C' which would make the technique more difficult but not eliminate it entirely.

TL;DR: It works. Game on.


does this mean that you could edit the workers in the editor to remove/fix/change/alter this trick/exploit/mechanic so that it was useless?

I.E. could you change the N value to 0 form .5?
Cofo
Profile Blog Joined June 2010
United States1388 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-09-13 01:36:49
September 13 2010 01:36 GMT
#411
On September 13 2010 10:29 TitleRug wrote:
Hey on Trump's stream the name the "7% trick/build" is sticking.


I liked "folding" as a name. The technique actually resembles a folding action, and it also gives credit to the OP.
+ Show Spoiler +
Riot Janook
Profile Joined August 2010
United States112 Posts
September 13 2010 01:39 GMT
#412
Hi everyone. I think this is very interesting.
I did some tests using this Boosted Gathering technique.

Using boosted gathering, I am able to build an Orbital Command at 2:33.
The build I use is 10 supply, 12 rax, 13 refinery.

If you can build it faster, with or without using BG, let me know!
I did not do this perfectly, I have some SCV overlap as you will see. Once I iron those kinks out I believe I can get the time down to 2:31 or maybe even 2:30.

Replay: http://www.2shared.com/file/F6fcofHt/Boosted_Gathering_OC_233.html
ZodiakLucien
Profile Joined August 2010
United States14 Posts
September 13 2010 01:39 GMT
#413
the term fast mining makes more sense to me
Civzero
Profile Joined August 2010
Canada14 Posts
September 13 2010 01:40 GMT
#414
If blizzard did want to patch this, couldn't they just add a half second delay to the start of the Return Cargo command? It would avoid harvesters being unresponsive with the exception of the Return Cargo command.
carebear91
Profile Joined February 2010
Singapore236 Posts
September 13 2010 01:42 GMT
#415
woah amazing. nice find!
SiNiquity
Profile Joined April 2010
United States734 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-09-13 01:45:17
September 13 2010 01:44 GMT
#416
On September 13 2010 10:33 jrkirby wrote:
Show nested quote +
On September 13 2010 10:23 SiNiquity wrote:
Having done a ton of research on worker mechanics in this game, and since I haven't seen a full explanation of this technique, allow me to explain the game mechanics behind it.

How this trick works

Workers in the game go through 7 stages cyclically (that is, at the end of stage 7 the worker proceeds to stage 1) when harvesting resources. This is straight from the Galaxy Editor:
  1. Approach Resource - The initial stage where the worker travels to the resource.
  2. Wait at Resource - If the resource is already being harvested.
  3. Harvest - The harvest stage where the unit either plays the harvest mineral animation, or disappears into the vespene geyser.
  4. Wait to Return - The worker waits for some number of seconds which I shall refer to as N. This is a resource dependent stage (that is, it depends on a property of the resource). For minerals, N = 0.5, but for gas, N = 0.
  5. Wait for Drop Off - This stage is only executed if a drop-off location is not available (i.e there is no reachable Nexus, or the last Command Center is lifted).
  6. Approach Drop Off - Worker travels back to the base
  7. Drop Off - Worker deposits the resources into the base.


At the beginning of stage 4, the "Gather" ability changes into the "Return Cargo" ability, as the unit now has cargo in its possession. Thus by spamming C / Right-click repeatedly into the worker's action queue, one can skip stage 4 and jump immediately to stage 5.

Theory does not lie. This technique works. However, as a result, it will not work for gas.

Finally, I don't anticipate this will get patched. The only possible fixes I can imagine would involve either making the worker uncommandable during stage (unlikely; would make workers seem unresponsive in some instances), or delaying the "return cargo" icon until stage 5. However, in the latter case one could queue a move immediately after the harvest and then queue 'C' which would make the technique more difficult but not eliminate it entirely.

TL;DR: It works. Game on.


does this mean that you could edit the workers in the editor to remove/fix/change/alter this trick/exploit/mechanic so that it was useless?

I.E. could you change the N value to 0 form .5?



Heh, figures I missed the obvious. Yes you could change N to 0 and increase the Harvest Time by 0.5 seconds and the technique would go away completely without altering the game.

However I am still doubtful Blizzard will patch this. If anything, Blizzard put it into the game deliberately ~ why else would they build an arbitrary "Wait to return cargo" stage where the worker literally does nothing? I've always thought it was pretty stupid, but just assumed it was a necessary evil in my calculations. Wish I'd thought of this technique
'i' before 'e' except after 'c' ~ it's scientifically proven.
Peleus
Profile Joined March 2010
Australia420 Posts
September 13 2010 01:46 GMT
#417
I just tried this out, I don't think people realize how huge a difference this makes.

It's absolutely awesome.
leviathan20
Profile Joined April 2010
United Kingdom193 Posts
September 13 2010 01:46 GMT
#418
On September 13 2010 10:29 TitleRug wrote:
Hey on Trump's stream the name the "7% trick/build" is sticking.


lol Trump was focusing so hard on doing this that he forgot to wall off against Zerg... :p

Luckily didn't cost him anything, but does show that you can put too much effort into this. He is still getting used to it tho I guess, and it did give his MULEs an extra trip.
"We better get that boy a waffle NOW or he gon' DIE!"
dolpiff
Profile Joined June 2010
France300 Posts
September 13 2010 01:51 GMT
#419
biggest application of this is in 6 pool and 7 rax reaper rush imo :x
shirogane
Profile Joined September 2010
Canada4 Posts
September 13 2010 01:51 GMT
#420
Giving the MULE an extra trip is quite trippy. Time to curse my low APM. *Yells at hands*
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