Starcraft II

[Tooveli]

Thanks Araban!
I knew all of them except shift warping in the same unit. Another big one, but I was getting pretty fast at t-click t-click z-click z-click z-click z-click might just stick with it.

It's such a fun game. Back to playing!

[MountainGo]

Thanks for the link, Araban. Ctrl+F1 is a handy one I didn't know.

[Solomon]

Small tip I found out recently thanks to a stream that I don't think the site mentions, can't believe it took me this long to learn -__-: When you've made an expansion, assuming you've built the assimilator/extractor/refinery already, select the necessary number of workers from your main to transfer. However, instead of right-clicking them to the expo mineral line, send them all to one of the geysers. Use shift + left-click to remove 3 workers from your worker group and send them to the second geyser. Shift + left-click again to remove 3 more workers and then send those to the minerals. Nothing big, but certainly better than sending all workers to the mineral patch and trying to select three workers twice from the line of workers while they're moving.

<- Adjutant is awesome.

[MountainGo]

Small tip I found out recently thanks to a stream that I don't think the site mentions, can't believe it took me this long to learn -__-: When you've made an expansion, assuming you've built the assimilator/extractor/refinery already, select the necessary number of workers from your main to transfer. However, instead of right-clicking them to the expo mineral line, send them all to one of the geysers. Use shift + left-click to remove 3 workers from your worker group and send them to the second geyser. Shift + left-click again to remove 3 more workers and then send those to the minerals. Nothing big, but certainly better than sending all workers to the mineral patch and trying to select three workers twice from the line of workers while they're moving.

Funny you mention that. Just yesterday I picked that up from watching a CheckPrime replay from his perspective (mind-blowingly skillful player, by the way). When I saw him do it, I couldn't believe I hadn't thought of it already. Before that I would click the workers all to a mineral patch and then try to box off groups of three from the conga line. Not very practical.

The same thing works for the normal transfer of three guys from minerals to gas once the geyser building is done. Just box off a bunch and then shift-click down to three.

All the awesome tricks in SC2 are done with the shift key. Burrowed Neural Parasite, anyone?

[fwiffo]

I was all ready to try that smart blink thing into a terran's main just now, but I fail so hard at micro. Since I had a huge group of units selected, stalkers weren't first in the group, so the blink never happened. :-/ I still won though cause I had like 10 colossus and extended thermal lance is the best thing I ever invented. And oh yeah, I got promoted baby. Almost makes up for getting cannon rushed a few games before...

[Solomon]

I was all ready to try that smart blink thing into a terran's main just now, but I fail so hard at micro. Since I had a huge group of units selected, stalkers weren't first in the group, so the blink never happened. :-/ I still won though cause I had like 10 colossus and extended thermal lance is the best thing I ever invented. And oh yeah, I got promoted baby. Almost makes up for getting cannon rushed a few games before...

Yeah, I consider extended thermal lance to be so, so, so important that 95% of the time I get the upgrade first before ever getting my first colossus. Without it, they'd have to be level with Stalkers to engage an enemy force since both have an attack range of 6, making it way too easy for them to get mowed down. And congrats on the promotion .

[fwiffo]

Now I just have to get better about directing my units so that I stop instructing my extended lance colossi to walk on top of a marine ball and then start shooting at their feet.

[schilds]

I going to try switch to the grid layout for hotkeys. I'm not sure whether this will be fun or frustrating :p.

[Tooveli]

I going to try switch to the grid layout for hotkeys. I'm not sure whether this will be fun or frustrating :p.

I started trying to do this. I'm finding it pretty awkward. My fingers are already used to the standard layout. Anyone got any thoughts on whether it's worth it?

I also find I'm so used to creating probes that even when I've over-saturated all my bases I still automatically make one every time I select my nexus and the production queue is empty. It's getting to the point where in long games I have to suicide some of my 100+ probes (on 2 mining bases) just to make more army.

[Solomon]

Meh, I think it just boils down to preference, though if you play Random it has even more benefits. I think the main reason I don't bother with grid is that attack is "T" and that spells are not where I'd like them to be; yeah I could re-map them but I think in the long run that'll just be problematic.

[schilds]

Well, I guess in the long run and with discipline, they would both turn out pretty much the same. However, I'm switching because grid lends itself better to self correction. If find myself going to click on the panel, with the grid I can catch it and then correct it without any additional thought. The 1-1 relationship just makes it a nicer visual cue.

I also find I'm so used to creating probes that even when I've over-saturated all my bases I still automatically make one every time I select my nexus and the production queue is empty. It's getting to the point where in long games I have to suicide some of my 100+ probes (on 2 mining bases) just to make more army.

Probes make a great meatshield for the rest of your army. Stick em in front of your colossi .

I do find I have to be more careful with zerg, previously I'd just spam the select larva key, but now it's the same as the build drone key, so I'll have to actually look to see if there are larva around before pressing it just once, which I think is good discipline anyway.

[update] I think this will take a while ... but now that I've started I'll stick it out.

[MountainGo]

Yeah, the grid layout is quite appealing because of how easy it is to always know that Q makes the basic unit at any structure, and Z is always the main spell of a unit with energy, etc. That organizational logic is why people like to put their main army on 1, even though 1a is quite an awkward combination (incidentally, 1t seems much easier). But in the long run, you're going to memorize all the keys no matter what they are, so the most important thing will be ease/speed of use. In particular, using Z for spells seems like it could be awkward. Let us know how it goes, schilds.

[Solomon]

Saw MLG Raleigh with an HD pass, great fun overall although the PvP matchups seemed soooo dry. Patrick Allen 3d did reasonably well, beating out 4 opponents (notably iNkA, 1284 D) but in the end got eliminated by Waterloo's Silver 2 - 1 (full brackets here: http://www.gotfrag.com/star/story/44920/?spage=3). I'd have to say the best game I watched was Socke vs. Drewbie, game 3 - storms, storms everywhere.

[schilds]

Let us know how it goes, schilds.

It's going about as expected. I've been playing mostly ffa and team games (poor ol team mates :p). Started off a confused mess and now I'm probably around where I was before (give or take), with the difference being that future improvement should be a bit smoother as it's easier to correct the impulse to hover the mouse over in the bottom right corner. I think being more compact is a slight advantage, too.

After a little use, any clumsiness felt in using a particular key such as z (because my pinky is such a weak, pathetic finger :p) seems to have gone away (though I actually tend to use my little finger for shift, with the next finger on z).

If I were to sum it up, I would probably say it feels more robust.

[Tooveli]

I've won 50 games as Protoss so I switched to Terran the aim being to switch to zerg next. I was expecting it to take a while to catch up to my level after switching, but I've found the exact opposite. Terran feels so easy to play! With Protoss, after 100 games I'm forgetting loads of little things all the time and it never really feels smooth. I haven't got a hang of the timing for warpgate cooldown so I operate on a basis of:

'check warpgate - check warpgate - Aargh I can warp - need to move vision to a warping place (really useful to hotkey a pylon for this) - OK warped in some units, what was I doing again? Oh yeah - nooooo, my army died.'

With terran it's just 'check build queues - ok they're empty, build more units while still watching the battle!'

Another thing that seems easier is supply depot building. Because marines are 1 supply while Protoss' basic unit is 2 and because you're not always warping in many units at a time, it just seems so much smoother as Terran (to the extent that I had to check that supply depots and pylons really did add exactly the same supply).

There are so many other little things too:
Want to expand now but the expansion site isn't going to 100% safe for another 100 seconds? Just build it in your base and fly it over.
Think that it would cool if marauders slowed units with their shots so that microing becomes a lot easier? Research it for just 50/50! (50/50?!)
Need instant scouting for some reason? Use a scan.
Been letting your macro slip? Spam mules and catch up a bit.
Think that ranged units are clearly better than melee units? Build .... anything.
Don't want your opponent in your base? Wall off.

I was getting a bit frustrated because I was having a hard time getting better. With the few games I've played as Terran everything has felt smoother and I can spend time concentrating on the little things (am I constantly making probes? am I constantly making units? am I using my energy? are my units doing something useful? can I refine this build by doing x?)

So, if anyone is struggling, try switching races. I think Terran are a lot more begginer friendly. It's got a lot more fun and I'm feeling like I can make my play a lot smoother rather than just panicking all the time.
Having said all that, I think the main reason I'm enjoying Terran could be because the way marauders jog across the field makes me giggle in every game I play.