Micro, macro and hotkeys

[Beef]

What is micromanagment and macromanagment

and

Can and how do you bind hotkeys (if you can):D

[Cpt.Chronic]

Micro is managing your troops in a battle and trying your hardest to keep them alive while killing your opponent. Macro is constantly using all of your minerals to build up a large force (i.e. expanding, building the right amount of troop producing bldgs., and being able to constantly produce from those bldgs. while not letting your minerals stack up).

You can hotkey buildings or groups of troops by holding the cntrl key and pressing any number on the keyboard. The troops (max of 12) or buildings (only 1 per hotkey) will then be bound to that number.

To expand a little more on how hotkeying can help you micro, lets say you were using terran. Then you would want to hotkey all of your marines to one hotkey that way you can just press the number they're hotkeyed on and then hit "t" for stim...same thing goes for tanks and deploying seige mode. Also, it helps to cooridinate your attacks better, such as flanking or keeping all of your units together for a mass attack. When you window select or cntrl select (selecting same type of units by holding cntrl and clicking on one) you will continuously be selecting the same troops over and over.

[Hayley]

Also you can use shift + f2-f4 to bind positions on your screen. Just press f2 after you bind it and it will bring you immediatley to that area.

[Jorix]

yeah, but no one ever uses it...easier just to bind a building there to a hotkey and doubletap it

[Cpt.Chronic]

I remember Frode saying that he uses location hotkeys so...

[Basan]

I remember Frode saying that he uses location hotkeys so...

Yeah, when I run out of regular (number) hotkeys... ;)

[smaq]

I remember Frode saying that he uses location hotkeys so...
frode is a sloth tho -.-

[UnHoly-Assassin]

I heard that if you attack a single unit, then hold shift and right click on a sequence of enemy units, you will only attack those until they are dead. Like you don't want to be distracted by the firebats but want to kill those five tanks. Attack a tank, hold shift, then right click on each tank. I haven't tested this out though.

[Hayley]

Yes, it's called setting waypoints, you can do it with movement too.

[Jorix]

you can use it to have a worker automatically come back to mining after it finishes a building too (unless its a drone of course)

[Basan]

you can use it to have a worker automatically come back to mining after it finishes a building too (unless its a drone of course)
I can do it with attack moves (patrol n' attack) or SCV's, but with Probes I suck at it. Can u please tell me a way? :)
I figured that if I sent the Probe 2 build in a wider area, it might do the trick... Like build Pylon here, another Pylon further away n' back near 2 the 1st Pylon 2 build the Gateway I intended in the 1st place. That if economy allows it in the meantime... :P

Edit add: Yeah, I know it works 4 scoutin' also. It's buildin' with waypoints that gets me 'fuzzed' over...

[thefazant]

you cant build more then 1 building with waypoints, you can only build a building and then let the probe/scv do other stuff like mining.
repairing can be waypointed

[Basan]

Tks a million... that's sorta of what I tought in the 1st place. Can't continue build orders with waypoints. Gotta stirr'em a little! *Yawn! Bond pun*
The repairin' I did already acknowledged it, but tks anyway. ;)
Gotta love these new ex-BF folks poppin' around... :devil:

[8882]

You can press ctrl and click to get the units of the same type (useful to bind scarce tech units like HTs and Archons, it also works with larvae) or use double click (especially useful with larvae, when you cant bind all hatcheries but have them in one spot)

you can use it to have a worker automatically come back to mining after it finishes a building too (unless its a drone of course)
I do this even with drones -__-
Now I know why they didnt go back ^_^

[rpf289]

hehe im ex-bf too...but i bet nobody even knows who i am. im always the ass who gets left out. lol

well anyways, hello everyone. i hope i get a warmer welcome here than i did on bf (i dont remember exactly what happened...but the f word was used more than once lol)

the only thing i didnt see mentioned about shift clicking and ctrl clicking is shift ctrl clikcing...yes hold both...i find it works best with larvae when my hatcheries are not all on the same screen. =)

[Basan]

You can press ctrl and click to get the units of the same type (useful to bind scarce tech units like HTs and Archons, it also works with larvae) or use double click (especially useful with larvae, when you cant bind all hatcheries but have them in one spot)Yeah, I use double click on it... but tks anyway. :P

I do this even with drones -__-
Now I know why they didnt go back ^_^Lol! *Sigh, why those mf'ing Drones don't come back?* :angel:

the only thing i didnt see mentioned about shift clicking and ctrl clicking is shift ctrl clikcing...yes hold both...i find it works best with larvae when my hatcheries are not all on the same screen. =)How about (number) hotkeyin' the factories? I usually give the 5-8 4'em n' it works... all over the map! *Duh* :devil:

well anyways, hello everyone. i hope i get a warmer welcome here than i did on bf (i dont remember exactly what happened...but the f word was used more than once lol)If u won't get in2 any 'I possess the absolute truth' trips, u'll do fine. ;)
N' adress 2 the folks u're commenting stuff up, that way it won't turn in2 a flash point thingy... :poke:

But those basics u've already figured out probably at BF... *Meh*

Merge add: Btw, welcome 2 WB.org kiddo.

[Uuugggg]

Uhm, am I the only one that disagrees with the definition of macromanagement?...
I'd say the micro-management definition is right - selecting just one or a few units and giving them a tactical order - telling templars to psi storm a group of enemies, and such. Macro- is ordering large numbers - telling a team of firebats to attack-move and then a team of marines right after, following by wraiths from the back or something... He's saying macro is base-building, and I don't quite think so...

[Basan]

Uhm, am I the only one that disagrees with the definition of macromanagement?...
I'd say the micro-management definition is right - selecting just one or a few units and giving them a tactical order - telling templars to psi storm a group of enemies, and such. Macro- is ordering large numbers - telling a team of firebats to attack-move and then a team of marines right after, following by wraiths from the back or something... He's saying macro is base-building, and I don't quite think so...
I don't even recall 2 see a macro definition in this thread but 2 me macro is more economy / production related... ;)

Ur macro 2 me, from what I saw from ur example, is a less requiring type of microin'. Or a distraction tactics, Tank push, trap setting/placing units, etc. :angel:

[thefazant]

micro is doing fancy things with youre units, that will make them do better, but also takes a lot of effort and is not absolutely necessary.
imo, storming is NOT microing, its just using templars.
carefully selecting youre temps without energy and morphing them to archons IS micro.
a-moving a group of goons is not micro, thats just using youre units, focus firing and dancing them is micro.
harassing with vults is not micro, killing 8 zeals with 8 vults is micro.
you get the point?

macro is just the process of making units and buildings, getting a good economy,...

[Basan]

Agreed with TheFazant in here. Especially in the Archon merging thing that many folks seem 2 forget after depleting the H.Temps mana (energy). It's 1 of my fav. during battles... except when he gets a S.Vessel 2 EMP while they morph. :cry:
The dancing 'Goons is also a nice thing 2 do... along with hit n' run tactics he spoke of with the 8 Vults. owning the same amount of 'Lots. :devil:

[stev2711]

And what defines macro to you guys ? Btw The Fazant, it's your not youre. It's annoying to see wrong grammar

[aak]

Macro is just that: the big picture. Expanding, unit production, which buildings you have, etc. It isn't a perfect line between micro and macro, but the smaller down what you are doing is, the more it is considered micro.

[Spartan-II]

That emp thing on the archon reminds me of what i did to my friend.. He went to mc a BC of mine and I emped him before he could..

[Syntaxsk8er]

It took me a while to find a forum about Macro and Micro, now what I am interested in is finding a map that you can practice the Micro technic. I just started playing StarCraft again after not playing for a while and I had a map in which you were able to to that, if anyone has any information on where I can find this map or maps I will appreciate it. Personally I think it is a very important technic when playing games with no rules. Knowing this technic well can save you if you were to be rushed by 8 zealots and you are Terran. Thanks alot!

[Basan]

Macro is just that: the big picture. Expanding, unit production, which buildings you have, etc. It isn't a perfect line between micro and macro, but the smaller down what you are doing is, the more it is considered micro.
Perfectly agreed. It's an nice add in to the general idea of macro being related 2 economy / production.

SyntaxSk8er,

Go 2 SC.org (http://www.starcraft.org) n' see 4 urself the maps section in it! It's 1 of the best around 4 SC addicts. Or u could search 4 SC maps in Google (http://www.google.com). This was the way I found about BWchart, SCXE, SF,etc. But with another word search of course! ;)

[Jorix]

8882 has every micro map known to man, just whisper him on useast or find him in channel blizzforums

[z.BeNnY]

8882 has every micro map known to man, just whisper him on useast or find him in channel blizzforums
<3 8882 ^^

[Basan]

I'll PM him (8882) 2 see if he can send a few over... I'm gettin' (normal) SC rusty, since I'm only patching n' playin' a mod with it lately! :o

[Jorix]

actually i just noticed yesterday that 8882 got mentioned on www.starcraftgamers.com because of his huge collection of micro ums...they just put up a big map pack of almost every good micro ums, so go check it out there

[Cpt.Chronic]

I want a 1v1 TvP micro map!

[Jorix]

there was that one tvp micro map that got posted on bf like 2-3 months back, but it was vs the comp...i cant remember what its called, though

[Syntaxsk8er]

Hey thanks alot! I found alot. But what are UMS? and what is a MOD? thanks!

[Jorix]

UMS stands for use map settings (the game type) and mod means more than one thing, but in this case it stands for modification

[Cpt.Chronic]

there was that one tvp micro map that got posted on bf like 2-3 months back, but it was vs the comp...i cant remember what its called, though
Yeah, I think I actually posted that one, but I still want a 1v1 one!

[Jorix]

well unless its protected, it would be pretty easy to rip out all those triggers for p and just replace it with the same thing that t has

[8882]

Im making a mappack, actually I made it. I mailed entropy and hopefully he will host it.

[Jorix]

send it to me too ^^

[Basan]

Tks, 8882. Those will be in the link Jorix mentioned, I hope? :D

[8882]

[Im lazy so I just copied the news from teamliquid.net]

Hi, by popular demand I created a map pack with most of my micro maps (I didnt include some maps, especially from folders 'beta' and 'crap').
The pack contains 202 maps, from my private collection, google and few other packs. Thanks to few people who gave me some of their maps (unfortuantely I had all of them ).
The maps are sorted, so you wont have to look for ones with specific matchup or confuse single player maps with multiplayer ones etc. However some maps are good and some suck (mostly because of poor balance), so if you dont like them try another one.

If you have any map not included in this pack, please send it to me - my email adress is:
fledgeling@poczta.onet.pl
If you are korean DONT kick me from games beacuse I dont have hanstar, I use the account 8882 on all servers except for asia - someone has stolen the account 8882, so I use the id's fledgeling and slimyohwan.

Thanks for my friends from blizzforums tactics team, who recently launched a website www.sctactics.com (http://www.sctactics.com/). Join us!*
Thanks for everyone who helped me to make this pack.

*no noobs (actually you can join, because we need some noobs to flame)


a brief description of maps worth playing is put in the readme file inside of the zip

The news is also brought to you in Kongrish:
hi yo I made a microcontrol map pack-_-!
You can train fast handjob!-_-;;
???? ??? ?????????
950++ ??? ????? ???? you no longer nada chobo-_-b
??? boxer style-_-zzz
microcontrol fighting -_-v
Want be LimYohWan-_-? you check yo-_-!
no kick 8882, no ban 8882, k?

http://www.sctactics.com/phpbb2/files/microcontrol_mappack_by8882.zip (http://www.sctactics.com/phpbb2/files/microcontrol_mappack_by8882.zip)

[Basan]

Actually I tried the entrophy zero site and I wasn't able 2 connect.

Tks 4 all the hard work u took, 8882.

[ShawnManX]

About hotkeying multiple buildings, you can, in a way, it's useless, but w/e, just start the buildings as terran then cancel then you can have a single SCV waypoint from building remains to building remains making them.

Like I said it's pretty useless, unless you're just using it to set up perimeter defences like Turrets and you need as many SCVs mining as possible.

[Renegade_Zealot]

Any good player knows to use hotkeys. They speed up your build speed, which can only be good if you're playing Zerg with Protoss on Bnet.

[Hayley]

Umm, why wouldn't it be good with Terran ?

[Original_JaminGrit]

I use hotkeys whenever I'm building up an attack force. I set marines/firebat infantry (keeping them mixed) to hotkeys 1 and 2, vultures and tanks 3 and 4, or as protoss I mix zealots and dragoon and set them to 1 and 2... etcetera, the possibilties for strategy are endless.

One of favourite things to do is to hotkey spellcasters like templars or queens. And terran scanners are the best to hotkey: you get attacked by a cloaked unit, you just press your hotkey (I usually save 9 and 0 for scanners) and then "s" to scan. I think I read that tip from somewhere, actually, I can't remember where to cite my source from....

But anyways, experiment. I'm sure there are still cool, original uses for hotkeying units and/or buildings that noones thought of yet. I've tried hotkeying observers, and I've tried hotkeying infested terrans, and those strategies work sometimes.

By the way, look on www.dictionary.com (http://www.dictionary.com/) (I don't know why it always seems so helpful). Macro and micromanagement seem to be the "Big picture" management and detailed management, respectively. The idea of macromanagement applying to large groups of units and micromanagement applying to hero units and spellcaster seems to make sense to me. Also, sending a large group of peons harvesting might be macromanagement, while building would depend more on micromanagment since you can only tell one peon to build one structure at one time. Arguing about these definitions might seem kind of pointless, but it's weird how it changes your view of your playing style. Helps you to think about it more.

After-post: By the way, I forgot to mention that when I assign groups of marines and firebats, I also tend to assign medics in seperate groups to make it easier for the infantry to use stims. Otherwise you have to select a whole group of infantry and medics and deselect all the medics to use the stim packs, and that extra command can slow you down, especially since hotkeys are all about using less commands and moving faster.

[Basan]

I use hotkeys whenever I'm building up an attack force. I set marines/firebat infantry (keeping them mixed) to hotkeys 1 and 2, vultures and tanks 3 and 4, or as protoss I mix zealots and dragoon and set them to 1 and 2... etcetera, the possibilties for strategy are endless.Duh, what an 'enlightened' idea... Not!

One of favourite things to do is to hotkey spellcasters like templars or queens. And terran scanners are the best to hotkey: you get attacked by a cloaked unit, you just press your hotkey (I usually save 9 and 0 for scanners) and then "s" to scan. I think I read that tip from somewhere, actually, I can't remember where to cite my source from....Duh, twice... Basics again (spellcasters hotkeyed). *Yawn*
Could it be me in a couple of other threads (Hotkey Scans)!?!

But anyways, experiment. I'm sure there are still cool, original uses for hotkeying units and/or buildings that noones thought of yet. I've tried hotkeying observers, and I've tried hotkeying infested terrans, and those strategies work sometimes.Hotkeyin' Observers (any detector as the matter of fact) is a must since u could quickly send'em in the help stop any invisible attack (Burrowed or simply cloaked). :poke:
About the Infested Terrans I did so 2 have a mine field rigged in the Zerg BW campaign ... I did it in level 3 or 4, don't recall really. *Meh*

By the way, look on www.dictionary.com (http://www.dictionary.com/) (I don't know why it always seems so helpful). Macro and micromanagement seem to be the "Big picture" management and detailed management, respectively. The idea of macromanagement applying to large groups of units and micromanagement applying to hero units and spellcaster seems to make sense to me. Also, sending a large group of peons harvesting might be macromanagement, while building would depend more on micromanagment since you can only tell one peon to build one structure at one time. Arguing about these definitions might seem kind of pointless, but it's weird how it changes your view of your playing style. Helps you to think about it more.We can do that also... :P
But this is game related, so we addapt the terms 2 suit it better. The "big picture" (as u said it urself) is the mining n' building productions (economy related), 'cause u need the resources 2 do everything else.
The microin' is the better / smart use of the units like dancing or hit n' runs with'em in front of enemy units allowing us a couple of free shots. Or 4 a better example like mergin' the H.Temps when they runned out of energy and u still need a couple of quick reinforcements 2 fight off the foe units!

After-post: By the way, I forgot to mention that when I assign groups of marines and firebats, I also tend to assign medics in seperate groups to make it easier for the infantry to use stims. Otherwise you have to select a whole group of infantry and medics and deselect all the medics to use the stim packs, and that extra command can slow you down, especially since hotkeys are all about using less commands and moving faster.No news here either... :zzz:

Add: How about reading the whole thread instead of just postin' be4, like u did? :devil:
I believe that almost all the stuff u babbled about was already covered here! :rolleyes: