(Re?)learning SC

[3Vee]

About a week ago I started playing SC "seriously", only to discover that I suck hardcore. (My only real playing for the past few years has been against friends at school who are mostly worse than I am, which is sad.) I'm trying to fix this, and I'd like some advice.

I've always been a Toss player, but I dislike same-race MUs so I play ZvP instead. I'm not going to bother posting replays at this point - I already know my largest problems (over-aggressive, a tendency to build no defense and/or defend badly, bad macro (specifically, never enough gates/hatches), and inattention to detail leading to missed pylons/OLs. That's enough to go on with.).

At this point, I've decided to just learn Terran (no bad habits to unlearn!), so I'm looking for the following:

- a couple basic BOs to learn
- players to look for reps of and/or good places to find reps to study
- good ideas for practice (either vs. comp or with people who won't mind a newb)
- things I should be looking out for (newb mistakes, things to remember, etc)

Unless the whole idea is really stupid and I should be sticking with what I already play, in which case tell me that. Also, are there any good ways to increase speed other than just playing more? My APM so far is about 40, which I can tell is insufficient - it's fairly obvious I can't react fast enough.

[Ahzz]

http://sc.gosugamers.net/replays.php

download any replays that cover the race you're playing and study them.
By doing only this you will notice three of the things you listed.

Once you're able to beat computers 1v2, stop doing it. Start practising vs humans.

[PaiN]

K if you really wanna get better than thats great but comming from where you are now its going to be hard.

K download like 1000 replays from pro/high skilled gamers. One website you can use is www.teamliquid.net

Watch what they do in each match up and try an copy them. Download iccup and AH and install. Honestly considerign you have no good melee background I think your best bet would be to find a trainer to get you started up to like Dish or else this could be pretty hard.

And about the APM generally it doesnt matter but 40 is really low. You need 80+ to start winning games =/

Edit: Ahzz beat me to it =p

[neobowman]

Btw, if you want, I could get a game in with you. Right now I'm not good either and need a practice partner of similar skill level.

[NaughtyDogs]

How does one figure out, or record your APM's? Is there some download? Also, I figure this is as good a place as any to ask, I am in a similar situation trying to re-learn zerg, and also adding terran to my arsenal. One problem I am finding that I have is that I dont build enough units fast enough, and then maybe even not enough unit buildings. Could this be simply a build order problem, or a speed issue? As of right now I dont have a standard BO for either race. Is this an issue I can solve by playing comps, or should I continue online?

[PaiN]

K a great SC tool to have is bwchart. Google it and a link will come up. Follow it and you'll get to the download site. It shows about everything you need to know. Secondly, for BO download replays from the links Ahzz and I posted.

You should also stick with one race and get good at that, learning multiple races can be very difficult. And when your APM comes back if your below 80ish then you probably have a large speed issue as well. And if you grasp the basics of the game then you should definetly go online, its much better to learn player tactics than comp tactics.

[lammas]

well there is one use for bwchart which is organizing replay database and it sucks even on that because it cant handle databases on thousands of replays all that well.

[NaughtyDogs]

Will bwchart work for the original starcraft, or only for broodwar? Also, do I need to download anything to watch these replays, or will they just play in say windows media player? Are these replays on starcraft.org, or is there another location to find them/others?

[lammas]

you dont need to download anything but you watch them with starcraft. Replay is actually a list of actions during the game and based on that the sc reconstrucks the game so no hope for media player.

replays are all around www.gosugamers.net is good. however there are no replays avaible for orginal, as far as i know nowhere on internet. so gogo buy bw

[anderoo]

well there is one use for bwchart which is organizing replay database and it sucks even on that because it cant handle databases on thousands of replays all that well. Yeah this is true. If you have more than like, 300 replays that shit just crashes when you start it up.

[PaiN]

So thats why it crashed. I had to clear out all reps. So then what can I use as a replay database then

[anderoo]

So thats why it crashed. I had to clear out all reps. So then what can I use as a replay database then The best I've been able to come up with is setting up a bunch of sub folders in my replay folder, but I I don't know of anything that works as well as bwchart as far as convenience goes.

[lammas]

I used to have 150 subfolders of replays ^^

not counting the autoreplays ofc.

and I dont think it actually crashes. It crashes if you try to quit it during adding replays to database but if you let it run all the way (this can take 1.5 hours) it works fine. Or worked when I used it. Of course when you cant use computer for anything during 1.5 hours everytime you want to use bwchart it becomes quite unuseable.

I havent heard of any better programs for database organising, but I think that one doesnt really need such. If you have to find some particular replay you can always put part of one players name to windows finder.

[anderoo]

The problem is I don't usually search for a specific player when I watch reps (assuming that they are in the game name) but rather look for the matchup, map, etc. So I'm stuck with bwchart and it's slowness :(