okay i been hearing 3 workers per resource is perfect amount okay for gas i get it that is easy enough, but for minerals it seems like even if i send them to the same exact spot to harvest they tend to harvest all over the place, so do people mean 3 workers for all the minerals you have at that base, cause that does not sound like enough ? can someone explain that better to me.... and the second one is a bit easier what is the handicap and how does it work obviously 100% on down to 50% for either opponent, does it just penalize the person with the highest number or lowest ?
Hey dude, I don't know about the handicap, but you are missing the point of the minerals pretty bad. It is true that 3 workers is best for mining both minerals and gas, however, you should have 3 workers for EACH mineral patch at your base. Since there are 8 minerals patches at pretty much every base, this would mean that you could have 24 workers mining minerals at each base. If you are going for the most efficient economy though, you would want to put about 16 workers at each base, and have at least one expansion. The more workers harvsting, the faster you get minerals, the faster you can build stuff, and win. 32 workers is about how many you shouls have. Hope this helps.
same thing, i dont really know what you are asking regarding the handicap. but here is the REAL philosophy of worker count: to optimally saturate your minerals, you need 16 workers (2 for each patch) NO MORE! + 9 for gas (3 each) the reason most people think its 3, its because they simply read what the pros do without understanding it. The point of having more than 16 is so that when you get an expansion, you get those extra 8 and send them to your new expo.
gotcha resources better used somewhere else i think part of the problem i was having is loosing track of how many workers i was sending to each mineral patch, seems like even if i sent 3 so one patch they start to go to other patches, so i guess everyone just watches how many workers they have at each patch and stops producing them when they see how many they have working each mineral or how many total they want working minerals ? also the handicap comes up when you play against AI
you don't need to keep track what you send to each individual patch, just count how many overall. they spread out themselves. And in early game, you want to get them spread out and all on their own minerals, then double up from there. and about the 16 compared to 24... are you sure that is fully saturated? 1 worker collecting, one returning to hatchery, 1 going back to minerals, at all times. That is at least how it works on gas, isn't it the same mining time?
No, it's not. I have watched a replay today where my opponent was having 3 probes at each patch, and one of them was always waiting. Thanks chowzilla for pointing out why pros do that, funny thing, many people have 24 workers on the mins and don't send them to their expo once they build it.
@ Chow I get the point of having 24 workers at the main and then expanding and sending 8 over, but why 9 on gas?? I would think you would want 6 at the main and 6 at the expo..... Also, this may be pointless, but I was wondering if it makes any sense to put 3 workers on gas as soon as your extractor warps in. Like should I take 3 from minerals and put them directly on gas to jumpstart my gas production and then replace the 3 on minerals as I get them? Or will this hurt my economy?
9 on gas, he means spread over 3 extractors. and I did watch my workers yesterday, and they did just fine with 16 workers. 24 is overdoing it. I saved soo much money and had more than I knew what to do with. I had 3 bases against the enemies main, and I consistently broke his expo. He was making mm balls and tanks, and trying to banshee harrass, when I had brood lords come in from the back and he left rather quickly at that point. the point being that 16 miners on 8 patches is efficient, and 3 on gas over 6 extractors means you don't have to worry about gas that much, but this is coming from a zerg player.
