Can someone explain micro and macro management?

[quadguy86]

I saw it in the lingo thread, but that explanation didn't make any sense to me. Can someone explain these to full extent? Thanks.

[SilverCrusader]

micro- little stuff, aka moving vultures around and attacking to pwn zealots
macro- big stuff, aka what unit u build

[U-238]

Macro is doing things on a larger scale. For instance building units, buildings, expanding, teching, etc is all a part of macro.

Micro is jsut the oposite. Micro is doing the little things like telling a tank to move here. Most of the advanced stuff you see in replays like "Boxors immortal Marines" is micro oriented.

[GroG]

Just to add on, when people say work on your macro, they mean remember to expand and remember to spend all your money, ie: make sure you have enough raxes or factories or whatever so that a unit is always being produced in all of them, and that your spending always stays low (as low as you can).

Macro is probably the most important aspect of SC.

[GosuGamers]

If you just attack-move two groups of units against eachother, you get a suboptimal outcome. Either side can improve on this result by giving specific orders to get "more for their money" out of the units--by telling certain ones to target a certain unit, or moving away or sideways or spreading out, depending on the situation. These are just some examples. This type of stuff is called "micro"--if you do more complicated commands so that they fight more efficiently, that's micro. Sometimes the best micro is to run away.

Macroing is just spending your money well, by using your production buildings efficiently. Players with good macro don't have lots of money in the bank, because they are spending it constantly so well. They have enough production buildings, enough workers, and get their supply buildings ahead of time, so the production doesn't stop. That's macro, efficiently/effectively spending your resources.

Both are about efficiency, "management"--one is about units fighting (micro) and the other is about making units (macro).

[BrotherGreen]

Mind you, dont let one get more important than the other.

Being a great player is using both efficiently.

I.e, microing while using your hotkeyed gateways to continue to produce units.

[Aqo]

If you were to compare starcraft to an equation than micro&macro are just knowing to add and remove. Just like you can't solve an equation if you don't know to add and remove you can't play SC with poor macro and micro. However, they're just minor aspects of the game and there are things a lot beyond them to the game (for example: unit selection, logistics, diversions, multitasking, etc).
A great player would not even have to think about his macro&micro in a game because he'll be able to do them naturally. He will sill practice to improve them though, like IloveOov did against Boxer.

[Basan]

Heck, I didn't even hovered the "lingo thread", but I assume that at least this description (http://www.warboards.org/showpost.php?p=91973&postcount=2) (about micro and macro management) was pasted over there. ;)

[bloodbane]

macro is large scale stuff things that effect many things- like the race you choose or stragey you choose deciding what units to make
micro is anything on small stuff moving units to certain place things that by themselfbut add up
lmarco are upgrades
micro is updates

[Catis]

If you hope to become pretty good, you need to have alot of APM (Actions Per Minute). This is made by microing and macroing efficiently. As Brother Green said, don't let one get more important than the other. They're both extremely important.

[Basan]

Catis, APM really isn't an effective meter of how well you play... *Cough*Spam clicks*Cough* ;p

[Aqo]

It isn't accurate with people who spam, but with those who don't it really is a good measure to see how involved a player is in his gameplay. You can used programs to detect spamclicks, too, so in the end apm does matter, but only in relation to how good you play.

[Cpt.Chronic]

Heck, I didn't even hovered the "lingo thread", but I assume that at least this description (http://www.warboards.org/showpost.php?p=91973&postcount=2) (about micro and macro management) was pasted over there. ;)
Haha, I wouldn't hold it against him. That post is like 2.5 years old, but it is a nice description if I do say so myself :cool: