what are good micro and macro training exercises?

Hi.

I've been playing SC for years, and now SC2.. however I never became a 'pro'. Basically I find it pretty difficult to improve my micro and macro (specially macro) management skills by just playing multiplayer.

I do watch a lot of replays, in many cases "i know what I should be doing", but an unpredictable scenario of a multiplayer game really doesn't let me make any good progress on this, mainly because I'm busy trying to apply micro/macro skills but at the same time paying attention to whats going on in the game and I end up losing because things get out of control quickly, when playing against a generously skilled player.

So the question is.. do you know of any 'mechanic' exercises that you can repeat a lot, say, in a versus AI game or something like that ? Something that you can repeat A LOT to gain a much more 'automatic' skill of doing micro and macro, so it gets more natural instead of having to 'think' about what to do in a game. even if you dont do anything like this, any suggestions will be appreciated.

 

Well micro will come naturally as you play more. However, I do know a few macro tricks.

First of all you need to constantly produce workers. Set all your command centers / nexuses / hatcheries to a control group (I use ctrl 5) and just get in the habit of constantly pressing that number and queuing up more workers. It's a little easier for zerg of course because they can just start making units and press D a few times.

Then you need enough production buildings, like barracks or gateways. I recommend 3-4 for each mining base you have (a little less if you just got a new base up and haven't fully saturated it with workers yet) or if you are zerg you should have queens at all your hatcheries, or even make an extra hatchery in one of your existing bases if you are massing low cost units like zerglings or roaches.

Finally, set all those production buildings to another control group (I use ctrl 4) and whenever you aren't in battle or anything, always just look at your resources. If you notice them getting a bit high (400+ minerals) then its time to press 4 and queue up more units. Or if you are an OCD player like me, just press 4 all the time to check the progress of your units

Also, if you are still having problems, know that there is absolutely nothing wrong with getting even more production buildings than necessary, they aren't all that expensive and if they allow you to use up all your resources then they are definitely worth it.

 

If you watch some pro replays they tend to needlessly click around a lot. I believe the theory is to keep your mind/fingers physically active so they are primed to micro as needed.

So while that wouldn't help improve your micro skill per se, I guess it would qualify as a micro tip.

Personally I don't bother. It makes the game too much of a chore imo, and I'd rather be using that time to take a drink or scratch my balls

 

I agree with khayman dont get hung up and gettting a boosted APM (action per minute) like pros by spam clicking However I can see how it might keep you engaged and ready to micro..

 

Good point, khayman!!! haha. If the game becomes a chore...what's the point?

I haven't played any other RTSes in the last ten years since the original SC first came out so I was a bit rusty, too. I didn't even realize there was a new Starcraft in the works til the day BEFORE it came out. I WAS SO EXCITED!!!!! I'm not even that big of a gamer, but I knew I had to check it out. ANYWAY....

I'd have to say my macro skills are definitely better than my micro, but to be successful in SC2 you have to be able to balance both that's for sure.

And very good advice, RushSecond!!!

I'm definitely no pro. I'm currently at about 200 games and gold in 2v2 and 3v3. Which isn't bad but isn't great either. I'd say focus on EXPANDING early. People don't scout well enough to make it that big of a risk. Practice makes perfect, I guess. Be aggressive. If you're good at micro u should do a proxy rax VERY early on and go for reapers. If you micro them correctly u can decimate an opponents economy and the game will be over before it's even began. Constant harrassment is the key. You don't have to be good at macro if you just keep your opponent on the DEFENSIVE.

Just play a lot of 3v3 and 4v4. Nobody gives a crap about what league you're in in 4v4 and 3v3. Watching replays is what's helped me. It's one of the best features of the new starcraft, in my opinion. Watch your replays, take notes. I don't know if any of that helped, im kinda rambling.

I think RushSecond's suggestion was excellent, once again.

later!

 

The built in training exercises can be really helpful, especially the ones involving countering units. As a whole i found the training exercises to be extremely useful.

As a related question, does anyone know if there any custom maps that are similar to the built in training exercises?

 

I think someone needs to make Macro//Micro for SC2. =/ Still waiting for the damn game to be made. Not many people liked that map in SC:BW but it was soo much fun and seriously helped me out a lot in terms of both Macro and Micro.

 

just throwing this out there

good precision hand exercise: making pizza boxes. It really does help. Get a job in a pizza place and watch your avg apm go up by ten.

 

what are all of the control groups you use? Also you make all of your production buildings the same control group? What if you wanted to make a zealot or immortal how do you do that?

 

Press tab.

 

oh ok thats what i was thinking but is that best wat to do it? instead of having like gates 1 rbotics bay 2 etc

 

Actually grouping all the different buildings together might seem like a good idea but be underused in the beggining...it's actually hella usefull. I thought about trying it a long time ago but it was such a pain to get used to so I just hot keyed all the seperate production buildings and did it that way. But lately I've been using it and it's hella useful in pumping out units in a pinch. Deffiently a must use.

 

What's the most effcient and fastest way to group your buildings together ?

 

If they are together you can double click and CTRL+1 or whatever group you are using, pretty quick.

(When I say together I mean on the screen)

 

Put your production buildings on control 3, and your nexus/command center on control 4. You could also put your upgrade buildings on control 5 or something if you want but I don't bother with that. When everything is tabbed together you need to just press tab and it will cycle through the different types. Barracks, Factories, Starports, etc.

 

I put all my army structures on ctrl 4, and whenever I make a new structure I just select it and hit shift-4 to add it to control group 4.

 

While macro and micro are both important, if you're having trouble focusing on one, focus on macro! Micro is fun and all, but if you have no units (from poor macro) then you'll have nothing to micro =P

On the other hand if you outmacro your opponent you'll have more units than him and micro won't be as big of an issue. One of the worst things you can do is focus so much on a battle that you forget to produce more units, which usually results in a counterattack and loss. So work on that macro first, then micro.

 

Agreed with some of the posters here in that macro is more important than micro, which is a bit of a shame because it supports the "create masses and steamroll your opponent" theory, which isn't what an RTS should be about.

Anyway. The reason I post here is to express how much I've come to like FFA. Why? Because first and foremost, games are unranked so I have no chance of further harming my win/loss ratio, which is already crap. Secondly, as every player truthfully says, practice/repetition makes perfect. That is to say, don't play micro challenge maps because they often depict unrealistic scenarios and do not allow you to develop in general. Instead, play real games, and that's where FFA comes in. While they don't necessarily create realistic 1v1 scenarios, I've come to realise that my APM has constantly been rising, I'm becoming more attentive (because there are 3 players to look out for), and I've been improving my overall gameplay ever since I started playing FFA seriously. I've developed the habit of regularly checking the minimap, something I had never done in 1v1s. I'm starting to see the differences between agressive and defensive play better. Lastly, when 2 out of your 4 bases gets wiped, you still have a chance of coming back in an FFA if you keep up your APM - again something I didn't do because I sort of lost hope before or just didn't feel like basically starting the game all over again with a handicap.

So my opinion is that playing FFA will significantly improve your skills, especially your macro and micro skills.

 

i think the challenge maps (from blizzard) can actually be of some use. you may want to check it out (if you haven't done so already).

 

Yes, the challenge maps are quite useful. I tried to get the gold medals as soon as I got the game and now I realise it's not a bad idea to revisit those challenges and try them again since I didn't know about how units worked back then. They deffinitely help quite a bit.

One awsome but hard as hell map for training was released by team liquid, but I don't remember the name right now. It's a map which is split into 4 parts. 1 of them is a terran base connected by land to your base, the other 2 parts are seperate and 1 is an island where you have to go save a unit and bring it to your main base and the other has a worker of your race and a zergling attacking it and you have to micro that worker around.

You pick difficulties and have to keep your worker alive, save the specialist unit, fend off attacks and kill the terran base(while still keeping your worker running and without being able to make more than 2 waypoints). It's quite hard(I've only beaten it once on the easy version and haven't played it on harder ones, but even that was quite intense on keeping alive the worker.

Give it a shot, if you see teamliquid as the creator it's probably this map