[Maynarde]

The Zerg Timer!



DOWNLOAD HERE!

Some good friends of mine from Manic Games Studios have designed this handy little application for low to mid level players to practice their larva inject timings. It's simple, and effective; a little audio bell goes off every set amount of seconds to remind the player to inject

It runs in the background, you hit Shift+Z after your first inject and viola the timer starts. Simple as that. It can be used for injects, mules, chronoboosts, you name it! Higher level players don't really need this tool but it's free for anyone to use.

This is of course a practice tool, the designer's intended use of this tool is for players to eventually have this trigger in your brain. This tool will of course NEVER be allowed in a tournament environment.

Enjoy

Send the Manic Games boys your love and check out their sick puzzle game Critical Mass. It's their first game and very addictive

Quick Comments

	Bugalugs McScruffin:	Good find.
	syfPhoenix:	just what i needed
	nirvAnA:
	PapaBigBelly:	BEAUTIFUL! thanks for sharing with the SC2 SEA community :)
	TAEdarus:	#winning

[Bugalugs McScruffin]

Hmm, I may have to try this out sometime. Good find Maynarde.

[Maynarde]

Wasn't found, these people are friends of mine and asked me to test it. They offer it to the community now that it's done. Hope you enjoy it man

[NvPinder]

When exactly do outside aids become cheating... Because this, at best, comes incredibly close to crossing the line in my opinion :\

Quick Comments

	EveJeonSa:
	Xenomorph:
	Mayo:

[Maynarde]

Originally Posted by TAJPMoney

When exactly do outside aids become cheating... Because this, at best, comes incredibly close to crossing the line in my opinion :\

It's a glorified metronome man, people have used them in the past to practice timings and macro in games. It's just a digital one.

Originally Posted by AsylumofSouls

I play zerg at Gold/Platinum level and probably lose most often because of bad inject timings but this, despite being an awesome tool and probably exactly what I need to get into diamond, is too close to cheating for me =(

Totally fine Use or don't use man, free to do either or.

[NvPinder]

Originally Posted by Maynarde

It's a glorified metronome man, people have used them in the past to practice timings and macro in games. It's just a digital one.

Yeah whilst that might be true, I'd honestly probably state my case to the admins that it's cheating if some guy was sitting at a lan tournament with a metronome that clicked loudly every time he needed to lava inject :P.

I get that no one would use them in that scenario, and its just for practice, but the thing is ladder to some people isn't 'just for practice', it's what they play for. Hell playing with a maphack against people can be a legitimate learning technique (I'm being serious here, i used to play broodwar buddies all the time and we'd both share vision and do our builds, gives you an amazing sense of timings that happen within the game, you're much more concentrated when playing than watching a replay). But something tells me if I do that on ladder, although just for practice purposes, people wouldn't be all that thrilled about it.

I guess I'm just playing devils advocate here more for the sake of discussion, as I think it would be a great learning technique, but, in my view, it's still definitely considered a form of cheating that if someone was using it in a game against me and it was a game i cared about winning or losing, I wouldn't be happy with them.

Quick Comments

Kalikah:

[AsylumofSouls]

I play zerg at Gold/Platinum level and probably lose most often because of bad inject timings but this, despite being an awesome tool and probably exactly what I need to get into diamond, is too close to cheating for me =(

[crAzerk]

I'm out so I can't try it yet, but how does it work past the first inject? Is it somehow synced to the game engine such that it only starts the countdown after you hit an inject? Or does it just literally play a sound every xx seconds?

Edit: oh ok so it's just a metronome

[Maynarde]

Originally Posted by crAzerk

I'm out so I can't try it yet, but how does it work past the first inject? Is it somehow synced to the game engine such that it only starts the countdown after you hit an inject? Or does it just literally play a sound every xx seconds?

It's synched to when you hit Shift + Z. So if you open the tool and set it to 25 seconds, you would hit Shift + Z after your first inject in the game, then the tool just runs and beeps everytime 25 seconds has ticked over. It doesn't do your injects for you, it's just beeps :P

[AsylumofSouls]

I'll give it a workout in practice games for sure and hope it helps me on ladder.
Thanks for the link Maynarde.

[iMSystem]

Quick question, if it starts when you hit Shift-Z and say even though you hear they bell, you don't inject until 2 seconds after, will the next beep be in with that inject. Or will it be 2 seconds earlier.

[Maynarde]

Originally Posted by System

Quick question, if it starts when you hit Shift-Z and say even though you hear they bell, you don't inject until 2 seconds after, will the next beep be in with that inject. Or will it be 2 seconds earlier.

2 seconds earlier, it's literally a stopwatch.

[iMSystem]

Originally Posted by Maynarde

2 seconds earlier, it's literally a stopwatch.

I thought this may be the case.
In that case if you keep missing the bell by 2 seconds, it can drastically un-align itself with your actualy inject times.

Still a really good idea, but a few tweaks to the program would help.

For example, make a section on the program where you can set the key-stroke that starts the stopwatch.
Then you can set it to the same hotkey you have for your injects in game, thus if you do miss the bell by a few seconds, the forthcoming bell will be aligned.

Again, I am not knocking down this, but just giving some ideas

[|Erasmus|]

Originally Posted by System

I thought this may be the case.
In that case if you keep missing the bell by 2 seconds, it can drastically un-align itself with your actualy inject times.

Still a really good idea, but a few tweaks to the program would help.

For example, make a section on the program where you can set the key-stroke that starts the stopwatch.
Then you can set it to the same hotkey you have for your injects in game, thus if you do miss the bell by a few seconds, the forthcoming bell will be aligned.

Again, I am not knocking down this, but just giving some ideas

if you're actually detecting when an inject happens and always notifying correctly, I think it does come suspiciously close to cheating... As a metronome pinging every 25 seconds to tell you the -optimal- spacing on injects it's a useful training tool to commit inject timings to muscle memory.

[iMSystem]

Originally Posted by |Erasmus|

if you're actually detecting when an inject happens and always notifying correctly, I think it does come suspiciously close to cheating... As a metronome pinging every 25 seconds to tell you the -optimal- spacing on injects it's a useful training tool to commit inject timings to muscle memory.

I suppose this is another issue as well.
For example there is no way you will be able to bring this program into a Tournament environment, but that doesn't matter to much because this isn't aimed at tournament players.

I would still be weary about using it as the Blizzard Terms and Conditions are a bit iffy about this kinda stuff.

And I didn't think about that either Bug.

I'll just go in the corner now :P

[Bugalugs McScruffin]

Peeps don't know what a metronome is?

Quick Comments

Mayo:

[Maynarde]

You can always shit Shift + Z again after your misaligned inject as well

[iMSystem]

This is true, but the program is meant to help, not make you push another set of keystrokes while playing.

[Maynarde]

True that! And yes this is to try and get the macro mechanics deep set into your brain so that the tool eventually becomes obsolete, as would a stopwatch or metronome for a player practicing for a tournament.

[Bugalugs McScruffin]

The only problem is V is used for larvae inject, morph Overlord, build Evolution Chamber. Anything else?