Almost giving up

So I reinstalled my computer and suddenly the sound is not always working when playing Starcraft. That is annoying. I did play a few 3v3 on (regular) Hunters just see if I could diagnose the issue. One of the games were with 2 really good allies against 3 really good opponents. We were being raped due to my suckiness and my allies were discussing the n00b (aka me) on their team. Rating my ability to control my units, expand and manage my base. Extremely rude and humiliating. And I was playing without sound too.

I tried to install Starcraft on my laptop and the sound works, but it is almost impossible to use the keyboard effectively in the game on the laptop. It won't work out for competitive playing.

Then I installed Warcraft III (both Reign of Chaos and The Frozen Throne) on my desktop computer and it has no sound problems at all. Quite puzzling. I then finished the human campaign in RoC and a few games against the computer. Starcraft is a way better game than Warcraft III, but it is hard to deny the many minor features that Warcraft III got right: Like the sound working! and automatic match making.

Old School Warcraft III

Tillerman just posted some old Warcraft III video commentaries. They are insanely funny, so go watch them. His Scottish accent is not very easy to understand (for me), but it is part of the experience ;-).

In the four-on-four game he plays the worst ally you could ever get. Funny, as long as you where not in the game yourself.

APM is Everything

Well not everything, but surely a lot as my new cyber-friend L.Gergõ has taught me. I kinda knew it already, but he led my attention back to the fact that those who has more action per minute, get more done than those of us who have less.

The graph above show his APM at top and mine at the bottom in a recent game we played. His APM was 119 in the game and mine was a lousy 62. And actually that is quite good for me, cause I can see that many of my old games have APMs around 55.

Now I don't think that a high APM rate is all good. Some players have APM in the 3-400 range and that is just plain silly. I even think 119 is higher than strictly necessary, although Gergõ argues that it keeps you on your toes to have a constant high APM, even when it is not absolutely necessary, to play the game well.

I think I'll make it my goal to get my APM up to around 75 soon and without cheating. Just pressing random keys would make it too easy.

Another, and I think much more valuable lesson he taught me, was to use hotkeys more. Hotkeys allows you to keep producing stuff even when your attention is on your units. I now use 0 for my ComSat, 9 to 4 for unit producing buildings and 3 to 1 for unit groups. Even when in battle I press 9, see if anything needs to be queued, put stuff in queue if necessary and so on. The benefit being that I can still watch the combat and adjust that if need be. I need to do this more often.

Another trick that I rediscovered from watching a replay with AiurAdun was how to split the SCVs properly in the opening minutes of the game. Select all SCVS and send them to a mineral patch. Deselect the first and sent the rest to another mineral patch. Repeat until the group consists of only one SCV. It really makes your opening slightly faster if done correctly and it warms you up to the high paced action that is Starcraft when it is at its very best.