[Doctor]

Hello to all the readers,
I'm having tough time figuring out when to look at the minimap ? Because i miss a lot of drops incoming , and other things because i didn't look at the minimap.. when is the time to look at the minimap ?

[SC2MKP]

to be honest, there is no specific time to look at the minimap. try to look at it as much as possible. etc: when u r moving into his base, and u r macroing, look at the mini map to see where is yr army at the moment. so try to look at it always

[Daboo]

There is actually no specific time, you need to look at it as much as possible.
What day9 recommends is in your head, run a checklist:
1)Am I building probes
2)Am I supply blocked
3)Watch the minimap

So basically you move to the top right, check supply, move down to the bottom right, look at minimap.

I actually started watching the minimap a lot when I was offracing as zerg. I would need to know when to make fighting units, as opposed to drones,so I started to glance at the minimap everytime I was about to make a round of drones, and having lings and ovies around gave a lot of map vision.

When I started playing toss again, I automatically started doing that, by having a probe at the watch tower and wondering if I should chrono my gateways or probes. To identify where to look, it's best to stick with the towers at the start, and when you know drops are going to come, start looking out for those. On every map there are certain "drop routes" that are quite common, and you'll get a feel for that when you play more.

As toss, I build pylons if possible along the drop route, and if possible get addition observers(tough as your robo will always be used for other stuff). Not sure what you can do for map vision as terran though, maybe have a viking around to spot for drops?

[Malik]

look at out of the corner of ur eye or with ur left eye is the most optimal thing it not so much a look action as a glancing action which allows u to see things. Also when looking at the minimap look for things that are out of place e.g. red dots and so forth in areas that should be in ur zone of control like the air near ur base this will allow u to respond to the enemy in a timely manner

[PapaBigBelly]

try to play your practice games fully by looking at the minimap!

very effective way of learning how to get used to the minimap

[Aean(:]

This is something i need to work on too >< The thing is i dont play a lot of drop users and so ive became reluctant to keep checking there

[noobinater]

If you're macroing with hotkeys (5aaadd) then watch the minimap while you do so.

[NvPinder]

im not sure if i ever actually 'look' at it to check it, most of the time i think i just catch the red things moving in the corner of my eye on it and immediately click there to see what it is. I cant imagine playing and actually just directly watching the minimap half the time.

If you're still struggling one obvious thing is to make sure you're using alt+f in 1v1 to make your colour green and your opponents colour red... and other than that it will likely just come with practice, as you're concentrating less and less on how to execute your build order and other basic shit you'll be more relaxed while playing and will catch stuff out of the corner of your eye in the downtimes, then with more and more experience you'll start easily catching stuff while battles are going on till it's just reflex to snap click on any part of the minimap you see enemy units moving along.

Quick Comments

	nirvAnA:
	Nemo:	That's it, peripheral vision is to be used for the minimap,that's your 3rd eye ;)

[dannnyds]

i usually glance at it every now and then, but i need to do it much more

[Stallion]

just work checking your minimap into every 3rdish thing you do same make 2 probe check minimap check supply build zealots check minimap check supply and just get a rythm going makes it a lot easier after a while you will also get into a rythm

[ToRDeathsFang]

If you watch pro's playing (when you see a camera from the comp showing their face) you generally see their eyes darting all over the screen. I don't know where i'm going with this.....Try to force yourself to look at the minimap, even if you feel reluctant

[Next_rim]

I never look at minimap, I just know the timings of drops and know when to expect it. I sometimes miss a nydus, but that's always due to me not scouting it in time.

[SkyBreaker]

I'm not a high level player, albeit aspiring, however I try to always be looking at things in the following order; resources & supply, tapping through my hotkeys to ensure things are being produced and the minimap.

I predominately use the minimap similarly to Pinder; to pretty much see enemy activity; movement, drops and so on. Of course the aforementioned can only happen if you've got some map-control (Xel'Naga towers for example) as it's too-little too-late if you only see the red dots when they're in your natural/main.

[Bugalugs McScruffin]

I find the more I look at the minimap the more I'm prepared for an enemy attack because I can see it coming.

Following on from what Daboo mentioned, Day[9] also said in his mechanics daily that you should prioritise what you look at in this order.

1(Most Important) - Minimap
2 - Resources/Supply
3 - Selection Details (Unit or Building) (Do you have something building from all your production buildings)
4 (Least Important) - Main Screen

He also mentioned 'The Tap' I think he called it. Basically at step 3 you just cycle through your production building hotkeys and check if you need to build anything. I've found having my production buildings from 5 through to however many I need means that I can quickly queue stuff up while I'm preparing for an engagement, or even in a battle, but I need to be able to tear my eyes away from the main screen to quickly check if I need to build stuff.

Quick Comments

nirvAnA:

nice post and nice forum name haha!