Nice thread ; good advices by a manner and skilled poster is always welcome (and generally proves to be useful).
I'll try this out when I get some free time (September maybe) but I'm not sure I'll have enough motivation ^_^; Anyway, I'll see.

Thanks for sharing, BlueIris

Maybe one day we'll play together if you're not afraid of playing vs a D- Protoss -_-;

Ramsing

Canada233 Posts

July 17 2007 14:07 GMT

#82

Hey I just started this yesterday and I was wondering what blueiris's records on a day to day basis were? Thanks if you have them.

hasuprotoss

United States4611 Posts

July 17 2007 14:09 GMT

#83

Heh, I'm doing a lot better in iCCup than I ever did in PGT, and I did try this. However, I really only did it like 5 times overall, and did not maintain either of the goals, so I can't be 100% sure if it is attributed to this exercise.

Axsynthe

United States161 Posts

July 17 2007 15:00 GMT

#84

I have a hard time meeting the goals -___-
I finally broke 100 today!!

Originally my apm was 63, and though I barely tried to reach the goals, I have noticed much improvement from newbie to lesser newbie.

I am now 100% undefeatable vs 1 Computer AI!

For 300 apm, do you guys spam many many times? I try to confine my actions to useful clicks as much as possible.

hasuprotoss

United States4611 Posts

July 17 2007 15:04 GMT

#85

On July 18 2007 00:00 Axsynthe wrote:
I have a hard time meeting the goals -___-
I finally broke 100 today!!

Originally my apm was 63, and though I barely tried to reach the goals, I have noticed much improvement from newbie to lesser newbie.

I am now 100% undefeatable vs 1 Computer AI!

For 300 apm, do you guys spam many many times? I try to confine my actions to useful clicks as much as possible.

Yes, the use of spam is very much so needed to achieve 300 APM, especially for people in the newbie skill level

. Good luck getting there!

unknown.sam

Philippines2701 Posts

July 17 2007 15:09 GMT

#86

that's a pretty decent exercise...maybe it'll improve my game as well, got a game coming up against a friend so i'll be sure to incorporate this exercise while i practice...

CustomXSpunjah

United States1093 Posts

July 17 2007 15:17 GMT

#87

the spamming is really to teach you to keep your mouse moving at high apms so that when your not trying for that 300apm goal, you use quick mouse quicks to do useful things instead of spam, and that is what basically helps you improve your unit control at high apms

DeifyME

Hungary47 Posts

March 30 2008 19:42 GMT

#88

Is there any point of spam(except raising apm)?

My apm is kinda low,and i am about to try this out. But i dont rly care my apm... i just dont like that i cant multitask, and my macro is crappy... i dont feel like killing my handz with spamming, and dont see, even if as i see nearly everyone spamz, so probably i am wrong,

Superiorwolf

United States5509 Posts

March 30 2008 20:16 GMT

#89

Theoretically it will help you improve your hand speed, and thus, your macro and micro multitasking skills, but I would practice it normally because brute force training like that will help you but I don't think it's needed.

Ryot

Canada316 Posts

March 31 2008 03:35 GMT

#90

Hey I just wanted to say thanks for this thread and the advice. I know it's not for everyone, but it is working for me. My multitasking in general has gotten a lot better, and the hand speed is helping my micro as well.

Today I was able to move up from D- to D as a Terran player. I play at ~200+ APM (used to be 300) and I notice I'm doing less and less spam and more "real game" stuff.

fanatacist

10319 Posts

March 31 2008 04:15 GMT

#91

200-300 APM at D-/D infers one or more of the following:

1) Lack of gamesense/strategy. Almost tragic levels of either.

2) Insane amounts of spam. If even 1/2 of your actions were useful, you would not have been D-.

3) Lack of experience. Watch some VODs!

RaiZ

2813 Posts

March 31 2008 05:08 GMT

#92

Old thread.

I won't advise anyone to spam 300 apm first. Just 200 is enough.
And more importantly : having 500 or less minerals is what will get you play pretty good.
That should work greatly.

thunk

United States6233 Posts

March 31 2008 05:28 GMT

#93

At least DeifyMe picked a good APM thread to revive. This method is kinda cool (it's actually makes you move faster if you're still moderately new to the game).

I'm suprised there isn't a recommended thread on APM/spam/stuch topics in the Strategy section, even though there are plenty of dumb APM threads out there.

As everyone said, ideally faster hand speed translates into more apt micro/macro/multitask (mainly multitask, IMO). It's really bad of me, but when I teach other people how to play SC, it pains me when I see the mouse move so slowly.

d1v

Sweden868 Posts

March 31 2008 09:33 GMT

#94

Jup, super thread here. I partially used the technique BlueIris was suggesting and it worked out perfectly. I started playing SC like 9 Months ago, and right now I'm around 280 APM with 180 EAPM, which is decent, I think. I really encourage anyone who wants to push their speed to try it out!

Play

Australia608 Posts

March 31 2008 10:10 GMT

#95

wow...i was following other people's advice of just letting your apm improve itself...i just tried doing this and got an average of 150 and didn't drop below 100! and basically no spamming either except for the first few mins... i usually average 100...so much easier now >.<

Caller

Poland8075 Posts

March 31 2008 11:16 GMT

#96

This is good advice, my apm went up from 70 to about 130 to where its at right now, 180. Plus I peaked at 534 a few days ago so that makes me somewhat happy

jingXD

United States283 Posts

March 31 2008 14:16 GMT

#97

I just increased my APM by 15% by switching to Geico.

More on topic: What do people spam? I have taken to spamming my macro hotkeys whenever I'm not doing anything to check on production in gates/nexii. Are there any other things (that might be useful) that people spam?

NatsuTerran

United States364 Posts

March 31 2008 14:36 GMT

#98

On March 31 2008 04:42 DeifyME wrote:
Is there any point of spam(except raising apm)?

It allows your hands to react faster to new threats/jobs you have to deal with ingame. If you're just sitting there doing only what's necessary, and then the enemy starts doing a bunch of harass or drops out of nowhere, it's difficult to consciously remember to speed up in order to deal with the new threat.

A good analogy is to that of a car. In a car, if you are sitting parked but then need to move, the acceleration will drastically slow you down. But even if you are rolling along at 5 mph, the acceleration will be that much faster.
The same could be said for a kickboxer, it's best to lightly bounce on your toes rather than standing flat-footed.

NotSupporting

Sweden1998 Posts

March 31 2008 15:40 GMT

#99

Indeed, and also that fact that you want to have your fingers warm all the time.

Goosey

United States695 Posts

April 01 2008 18:05 GMT

#100

Tried this at lunch break today, and I have got to say it is really difficult. I was struggling to get above 300 with just pure spam at the beginning, once i actually had stuff to do staying above 200 was a real challenge. In the end BWchart tells me my APM was average 158 and I did spam constantly..

So I have a lot of work to do.

I probably 'tried' to much during the game, since i did win vs the CPU and spent some time microing and such, so I will need to focus more on pure APM to attain the constant 300. Was able to keep resources low tho, except when i reached 200/200 and could not macro any more..

Fun practice, i think this will help a lot. Even partway through the game i felt like I could act faster and actually pay attention to what was going on, so I am seeing big improvements right away. I am normally at APM 80-90, so averaging 158 felt really fast to me.

Also nice to have something i can do during lunch break other than youtube VODs, since I can not connect to bnet due to router issues.

EDIT: Anyone know of a chaos plugin for live APM measurement that reflect your 'current' APM better? It seems the APMAlert does a whole-game average, so after beginning game spam it did not change very quickly regardless of if I spam or just watch it like a movie.