[mGGMueX]

Hi, I'm a trying to get into eventually, and find that one of the main reasons I lose games is because my multitasking and minimap awareness fails, so I get dropped on mutliple fronts, lose my base, can't scout properly etc. What's the best way to develop this skill so I can become a better player?

[xGKingdelete]

Have as much of the map visible as possible. If you control the watchtowers and have an observer floating around near a possible drop location, or some pylons around the map, you'll be more likely to spot it before it reaches your base. One high templar at each base helps a lot to feedback the medivac.

If you're going to be fighting on multiple fronts, you have to split your army. Don't instinctively 1A your whole army to deal with one medivac.

The more you try to multitask the better you will get it, even if you choke at first

[PiG]

My two cents would be that a key point people forget is you can't be thinking on the spot ingame. If you want to get to and beyond than you want to be developing solid builds and reactions and following these to the dot. Say you scout say 1 rax fe into 4rax, if you react differently each time you see this you never really improve too far because you spend all your time thinking about and adjusting your reactions in-game rather then doing them in split-seconds by memory and focusing on memory/opponent while doing so.

So you want to always know what to do next and if you are every spending much time thinking about a build/reaction ingame then you won't be able to do it fast enough. Also you will focus too much attention on it and not be able to monitor everything else going on.

Make sure each time you lose a game if you don't know how you lost then memorise what you should have done differently and get more and more confident in what you have to do at each moment

Quick Comments

	Satu:
	FaDeKerrigan:
	FS.Kezz:
	AxS.Sorathez:

[Zepph]

It's one of those things you'll improve gradually. PiG has some really excellent points in his post. As far as map awareness goes - being protoss you should be abusing the hell out of having observers. Make sure you position them in good spots to be able see incoming attacks and drops.

I'd put looking at your minimap somewhere in your macro routine also. I'm zerg so for example something I might do is do my injects, check supply, look at the minimap, repeat. If you have a scouting unit ,hotkey it ,and flick to that. So you might do something like build probes, chrono something, check minimap, flick to observer...etc.

That's how I learnt to be more aware of the minimap in my games

[Stallion]

all of the above are excellent points to bring up and I feel if you aim to do all of these thing with practice it'll come. Also one of the things i did to help my awareness is i tryed to get in a routine of supply check map check macro supply/mineral check map check macro. and just really get in a pattern so that it comes naturally after something. I mean you obviously chuck in your build and army positioning etc in there its just having like a quick check system that works for you. Thats just an idea you can do i found it helped me a lot. gl hf

[Bloodmyst]

I'm only plat so I got no idea what it takes yet to get to GM. But I'm not sure if many people actually really do it or not but;

I would approach the problem as such by making a conscious effort to use the the cycle method (or whatever you wanna call it);

M = Map
I = Income
P = Production
S = Supply
S = Scout
A = Army

After I do my initial BO, I go into this method of thinking. I've found when I started to make a conscious effort of following this cycle, my army is much more active on the map instead of just sitting in one spot all game.

Another way to do it is use SC2 gears to find out where you are spending your APM and what you are paying too much attention to. Maybe SC2 gears may tell you that your spending too much time looking at your base, or you are simply just spamming too much where you could actually use that apm for something beneficial. Once you find out where you are spending unnecessary apm or attention, you can then change your habits and use that time for other things such as multi-tasking.

[Intoccabile19]

I am also only Plat but I was watching destiny coach the other day and I really like the analogy he used for minimap awareness.

He basically said when driving (if you are a decent driver) you should be able to, at anytime, tell me if there is a car behind you. This is because you should always be checking and paying attention to your rear vision mirror even when not looking at it directly. The same goes for the minimap.

Not sure if this helps you....but it seemed to help me.

[Cordance]

Im a lowly silver due to mainly lack of playing to improve my skill. How ever way back in season one there was a map made called multitask improvement or something like that. Use to play it a lot. Could see a noticeable improvement in my game play from playing it. Im sure by now there are a lot more. I remember hearing about a micro map. I use to play one game of that do my laddering then finish off with a game of that. The idea of my routine was to always play it to constantly improve. Play ladder to clearly play the game for enjoyment. Then finish off with one to see how tired/lazy I had become with it. Also help with reviewing replays knowing how badly I finished off at the end of the night.

[NDG.Stitch]

Multitasking is something that really comes as you get better at controlling your units and at the game. One of the key things to "give" you that time to maybe do something else whilst your pushing is definitely doing multiple movements. Instead of sending one action to your medivac to go to a certain position, send 4 actions. This will give yourself time to go back to your base and macro while the push is still happening. Being familiar with hotkeys and all sort of things like that is important. It becomes muscle memory as you move onto higher leagues, but you need to force yourself to remember things like looking at supply, your income, your units continuously. That's why sometimes you see players spam hotkeys, it get's them in zone for multitasking in later games and it does get important as out-playing people a lot of the times comes from here on.

[Reere]

Originally Posted by PiG

My two cents would be that a key point people forget is you can't be thinking on the spot ingame.

Very true, I'd like to expand on this.

There are many things that you have to do in-game for every race where it doesn't matter what your current situation/condition is, you still have to do it.

In a Zerg perspective, it doesn't matter what I scout or what I'm trying to defend/attack, I have to always keep up with injects, creep spread, overlords, check minimap.
By working these simple mechanics (I know are much more to mechanics then these 4 points), you would have significantly increased your rate of multitasking and game awareness.

The fact is even in Masters & GM, players are still working on their mechanics. Don't worry about needing to make X to beat Y. Worry about perfecting the basics of your own game, multitasking & game awareness will naturally evolve from there~

[cruxSpoon]

My two cents! All above points are accurate. However if you want to ACTIVELY improve mutlitasking, then i suggest doing a build that forces you to multitask. For protoss, warp prism drop play, would help you focus on drop and macro at same time, or pressure builds that require you to be active on the map.

hope this helps! (also sorry if said already)

Quick Comments

Stallion:

very true

[faithHunter]

Look up "Darglein's Multitasking Trainer" on TL and the North American server. Maybe that will help

Quick Comments

Reere:

Yes! but sadly I don't think it's avaiable on SEA server

[Johnny.L]

In the last SOTG episode, Stephano stated that he doesn't have a build orders or a what to build at what time. He just goes by his gut feeling. Do you believe this 'Gut Feeling' is something we can develop? or should we develop solid build orders in order to get better?

edit: Sorry I tried tagging Pigs post into this comment but i'm still new to this forum.

Pig:-
"My two cents would be that a key point people forget is you can't be thinking on the spot ingame. If you want to get to and beyond than you want to be developing solid builds and reactions and following these to the dot. Say you scout say 1 rax fe into 4rax, if you react differently each time you see this you never really improve too far because you spend all your time thinking about and adjusting your reactions in-game rather then doing them in split-seconds by memory and focusing on memory/opponent while doing so.

So you want to always know what to do next and if you are every spending much time thinking about a build/reaction ingame then you won't be able to do it fast enough. Also you will focus too much attention on it and not be able to monitor everything else going on.

Make sure each time you lose a game if you don't know how you lost then memorise what you should have done differently and get more and more confident in what you have to do at each moment"

[Bloodmyst]

Originally Posted by Johnny.L

In the last SOTG episode, Stephano stated that he doesn't have a build orders or a what to build at what time. He just goes by his gut feeling. Do you believe this 'Gut Feeling' is something we can develop? or should we develop solid build orders in order to get better?

edit: Sorry I tried tagging Pigs post into this comment but i'm still new to this forum.

Pig:-
"My two cents would be that a key point people forget is you can't be thinking on the spot ingame. If you want to get to and beyond than you want to be developing solid builds and reactions and following these to the dot. Say you scout say 1 rax fe into 4rax, if you react differently each time you see this you never really improve too far because you spend all your time thinking about and adjusting your reactions in-game rather then doing them in split-seconds by memory and focusing on memory/opponent while doing so.

So you want to always know what to do next and if you are every spending much time thinking about a build/reaction ingame then you won't be able to do it fast enough. Also you will focus too much attention on it and not be able to monitor everything else going on.

Make sure each time you lose a game if you don't know how you lost then memorise what you should have done differently and get more and more confident in what you have to do at each moment"

Somehow I don't think the same mentality would work for either Terran or Protoss. Since you know how Zerg is considered the "reactionary race" out of the three and the fact they can tech switch so quickly compared to Toss and Terran.

Most would probably say to go by a build order and they are most likely right as it's quiet obvious imo that you would improve at a much faster rate then just going by "your gut feeling." However, if you feel going by your gut feeling works well for you, by all means go for it. Each to their own I guess.

But I do think the fact Stephano plays by his gut feeling is god damn insane since hes doing so well atm.

EDIT: LOL, had to edit this post twice because of typing "Guy Feeling" instead of "Gut Feeling". HAHA, might save this one for the "Where the girl blogs at" blog.

[Malik]

another good way to improve is to turn off alerts and sound as it forces you to monitor ur minimap as well as at sine stages if the game ur forces are under attack isnt really helpful indicator of the location of the threat

[Reere]

Originally Posted by Johnny.L

In the last SOTG episode, Stephano stated that he doesn't have a build orders or a what to build at what time. He just goes by his gut feeling. Do you believe this 'Gut Feeling' is something we can develop? or should we develop solid build orders in order to get better?

Gut feeling is something u develop after playing a massive amount of games. It can be developed by everyone, but IMO everyone started off with a Build Order as a rough guideline to stay on the "right path".

After you've done that Build Order or Timings enough times, you start to have gut feelings on what you can or can't get away with. And soon after that, you no longer play with a set timing or build order, it's just how you feel under the current set conditions/situation: Gut feeling.

[nGenLight]

Stephano's GUT Feeling is derived from him following BO/Correct reaction/decisions for over 295249027420 games. So to answer the question, yes you can develop a gut feeling/automaticity to playing, but first you need to understand/practice the crap out of the basics. You won't just suddenly become good if you don't have the ability to just sitdown and say "against a 1gate expo I need to do this" "if I see this I shoul do this".

Quick Comments

	Reere:	u put it in much better words then me :)
	Satu:

[Aights]

Understand where to predict incoming drops
And if you lose due to a flaw like you didn't scout properly, expanded earlier, position army etc.
Just put it across your mind for the next game
Slowly your brain should pick up these ideas and it'd all become memory
Starcraft 2 surprisingly (least to me) is quite memory dependant

[Crankenstein]

My friend EvESigns observed a few games I played and yelled at me over skype. The whole time he kept yelling "Come on Crank, don't get lazy! Push your apm! stay active with those hellions at the front of the creep, come on! Push it! Push it!"

Ever since then I can't get that shit out of my head. Every time I play I just hear "push it, PUSH IT!".

Once I got past the phase where everytime I would think it I would burst into laughter it actually became quite helpful. Rofl.

Quick Comments

	EveVendetta:	lol
	SLCN.NXZ:	Signs is awesome!!

[mGGAequitas]

try this: http://www.kongregate.com/games/IcyLime/multitask-2

i think this little flash game is quite synonymous with starcraft 2, because in sc you start with doing one thing (making workers) then you add more and more things.
When you're playing you should have a sort of list in your mind of what you need to be doing; at the start there is just making workers and looking at the minimap, but as more elements are introduced, ie you build a barracks/have hellions to micro/etc. you add these things to the list, after practicing a lot this basic concept should become automatic.

[Trusty]

Play lots of games...... lots of games.

Watch FPvods to see how others do it, and try to copy their system if you want.

In the end it comes down to playing lots of games.

[EXCL]

Originally Posted by Malik

another good way to improve is to turn off alerts and sound as it forces you to monitor ur minimap as well as at sine stages if the game ur forces are under attack isnt really helpful indicator of the location of the threat

Playing with no sound was something I used to improve my multitasking. I became more paranoid whether my units were under attack or when buildings finished. It also made me feel more uncomfortable with what I was seeing to an extent that I found myself scouting more to make myself more at ease with the silence.

I dont agree with you Trusty. I have seen genuine bronze/silver/gold players with hundreds of games under their belt. Creating strategies to improve your multi-tasking is different to playing mindless games without the fore thought of improving your game.

I am currently at the same stage - plat/protoss and my multi-tasking is letting me down, so all the previous advice has been great fore me also tyty

[Trusty]

Originally Posted by FaDeEXCL

I dont agree with you Trusty. I have seen genuine bronze/silver/gold players with hundreds of games under their belt. Creating strategies to improve your multi-tasking is different to playing mindless games without the fore thought of improving your game.

I am currently at the same stage - plat/protoss and my multi-tasking is letting me down, so all the previous advice has been great fore me also tyty

That's just the line between playing for fun, and playing to learn. It's pretty obvious that if you're playing for fun, you're not going to be learning as quickly as someone who plays to learn.

I thought it went without saying that we are discussing people who want and are willing to learn.

And the only way to improve your 'Star Sense' is playing lots of games (in which you're trying to learn).

[Xeen]

Rule of thumb for you guys. If you ever want to improve, and have to ask 'how do I improve', the answer is 'play more games'.

If one specific thing is lacking that you need to work on, you will know what it is. If you don't know what it is, the answer is everything. Go play more.

[EXCL]

Originally Posted by Trusty

That's just the line between playing for fun, and playing to learn. It's pretty obvious that if you're playing for fun, you're not going to be learning as quickly as someone who plays to learn.

I thought it went without saying that we are discussing people who want and are willing to learn.

And the only way to improve your 'Star Sense' is playing lots of games (in which you're trying to learn).

Not really the point I am getting at. I think that playing lots of games is going to improve your "star sense" sure. But when talking about "methods" to improve your multi-tasking, playing lots of games is only one part of it and shouldnt be considered as the be-all and end-all factor....which is what i got from your post.

[AlbertHR]

is there any habits that would be useful in improving multitasking and map awareness ? Cause I don't think playing more games blindly won't help to improve multitasking and awareness

[KamiGami]

One thing I know that helps a ridilous amount with this is Dargleins Multitasking Trainer. Although i do not know if it availible on SEA (hopefully yes). It is so good and helpful. After around like 8 hours of doing it in one day I got promoted 1 league up where before I was stuck in low silver for months. It is basically this:
You have to macro and not let your money and such get above a certain amount and vraious other tasks, while you have to keep a worker alive in a simulated enemy base (as in it is being chased by an enemy worker) If you can do that really well ladder becomes really easy.

[Bloodmyst]

You could always practice rubbing your belly and patting you head at the same time. This would help with multitasking in-game right?....... right guys?

I heard ForGG does this to warm up before he starts gaming......

Quick Comments

	MooZfY:	I DOIGN IT RIGHT NAO!
	sRDreaM:	Really!!!?? I'm doing it from now on

[Thoth]

Ali is trying to do the same thing, and he is doing it by incorporating heavy phoenix play, along with his macro style, he does so in order to develop the multi-tasking ability he needs to pull off macro and the phoenix micro, you should give it a try.

Or perhaps practice a multi-pronged push (warp prisms come to mind), as for minimap awareness, that comes with time and practice, but if you want to focus on it, then I suggest training yourself to look at the minimap as often as possible during your games (consciously forcing yourself to do so), even if nothing is really happening. Focused practice on these to aspects will help a lot more than playing games blind.

Anyway, good luck MueX ^_^

[Malik]

Originally Posted by FaDeEXCL

Playing with no sound was something I used to improve my multitasking. I became more paranoid whether my units were under attack or when buildings finished. It also made me feel more uncomfortable with what I was seeing to an extent that I found myself scouting more to make myself more at ease with the silence.

indeed also it forces you to have better minimap awarness as you have to check it more often which is helpful in games. Also i tend to find that it forces you actively monitor your units (by that i mean you dont just leave them to their own business in the middle of the map while reallying on alerts to tell u if they are under attack) which means that you have to be switching between macro and micro managment quickly and mot importantly smoothly (i.e. with as little spam as possible).

[MeLo]

Replay = waste of time.

Pros don't do it on stream.

The time you take to look at a replay is the time that could be used to play a game and build on mechanics.

[mGGDaedalus]

Honestly, it mostly comes down to practice. If you can, find practice partners that are much better than you and have them kick your arse over and over again. For me, I've improved a lot recently from practicing with masters and gm level guys in my clan who beat me with APM even when their build doesn't counter mine. It feels hectic at the time, but when you are forced to play at that tempo over and over you gradually grow used to it.

Also to get the most out of those practice games, try to come into them with a clear build and game plan in mind. Better multitasking and game awareness is just doing what you normally do, but being able to do it faster and not forget things when you're distracted by something that puts you out of your comfort zone or taxes your APM. The more of your game you can do mindlessly and mechanically, the more brain power you'll have left over for decision making.

[dippa]

Originally Posted by MeLo

Replay = waste of time.

Pros don't do it on stream.

The time you take to look at a replay is the time that could be used to play a game and build on mechanics.

replays are never a waste of time, and just about every pro puts time into replay analysis.

just because they don't stream it (although i know jinro loves to watch replays and beat himself up after a loss) doesn't mean they don't do it, nor does it mean it's not valuable.

it won't improve your mechanics - but it'll let you know when they're failing, which gives you an idea of what points you need to double your focus on them.

[cruxis]

Here's multitask 1. http://www.onemorelevel.com/game/multitask

And here's a mouse accuracy game. http://www.bigfatarcade.com/swf/discdash.swf

Originally Posted by MeLo

Replay = waste of time.

Pros don't do it on stream.

The time you take to look at a replay is the time that could be used to play a game and build on mechanics.

I see some players do it on occasions. Generally they don't do it because they know where they went wrong, and they'll generally say it.

Sure, mechanics are important, but so is understanding the game, and not watching replays can be information you're missing out on.