[D] Macro Cycle List and Guidelines

I saw, in another thread, a reference to keyboard macro cycles. When I compared my own cycle to a well developed macro cycle, I realized 4sd with the occassional deviation for injects wasn't going to cut it anymore.

I'm curious if people have specific macro cycles, what they are, and how they adjust them. My hope is for this thread to develop a small list of basic cycles that cover more than just drones/probes/scvs, and some guidelines for adapting/adding to them. I play Zerg, so those are the cycles I'm most interested in, but obviously any race's cycle is desired and welcome.

Last edit: 2012-07-02 00:51:39

essencesc2 United States. July 02 2012 01:02. Posts 18

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I play terran and zerg at a high plat / diamond level so

terran cycle:
1. follow build timings
2. scvs
3. units
4. count scvs on each cc / re-rally ccs
5. upgrades

zerg cycle:
1. follow build timings
2. inject
3. units / drones
4. count drones on each hatch / re-rally hatches
5. creep
6. upgrades

Sianos July 02 2012 01:36. Posts 528

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I play terran at high diamond level:

1. Build scvs
2. Build units
3. Build supply depots
4. Follow build
5. count scvs and rally ccs
6. upgrades
7. watch minimap

benthekid United States. July 02 2012 01:38. Posts 123

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terran cycle:
1. follow build timings
2. scvs
3. units
4. count scvs on each cc / re-rally ccs
5. upgrades

You forgot mules, Army movement and building static defense

"Protoss is really strong recently. Perhaps, it's time for there to be some changes for Terran." -MMA

Nuclease United States. July 02 2012 01:40. Posts 664

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High diamond Protoss cycle:

1. Warp gates
2. Probes
3. Pylons
4. Other production (robo, stargate, etc.)
5. Upgrades

Zealots, not zee-lots. | Never forget, KTViolet, Go)Space.

Demonhunter04 July 02 2012 01:44. Posts 1466

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Interesting. I don't follow a specific cycle, I just do whatever is almost done (queue units if they're almost done, get ready to continue upgrades, etc)

"If you don't drop sweat today, you will drop tears tomorrow" - SlayerSMMA

Mavvie Canada. July 02 2012 01:45. Posts 850

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This isn't so much a list, but I use queens on hotkeys 5-9, and whenever I inject, I check
1) Drone count at each base
2) Progress of upgrades
3) Overlords derping around, not spread around the map

And then I micro army until the next inject cycle, making units/overlords as needed.

Mavvie.439 ~ 2500+MMR [HOTS] Masters Zerg on NA ~ part of Bronze 3v3 team uwu ~ Feel free to add me to play some games ~~ Hyunstoppable?

Sianos July 02 2012 01:53. Posts 528

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If you follow your build before you have checked your scv, unit production and supply you end up with idle time on your production and/or with little supply blocks, so I wouldn´t recommend following the build first.

Last edit: 2012-07-02 01:55:15

HeeroFX United States. July 02 2012 02:00. Posts 1914

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On July 02 2012 01:44 Demonhunter04 wrote:
Interesting. I don't follow a specific cycle, I just do whatever is almost done (queue units if they're almost done, get ready to continue upgrades, etc)

Lol same here. I just keep in mind what i want to do and just do it.

Entirety July 02 2012 02:08. Posts 848

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Terran cycle:

1. Build SCVs
2. Built units
3. Supply Depot
4. MULEs (when is the last time I scouted my opponent? Sometimes save a MULE in favor of scan)
5. Check saturation + overall count of SCVs (60-80 is a good place to stop)
6. Check rally points
7. Upgrades
8. Check production facility ratio (not enough Barracks? that sort of thing)
9. Check add-on ratio (using recently scouted information, need more Marauders = more Tech Labs)
10. Do 1-4 again
11. Build more CCs/Turn existing ones into OCs/Build more upgrade buildings (Armories and whatnot)
12. Build Refineries/check Gas saturation/check Gas to Mineral ratio
13. Check tech (lay down Ghost Academy, etc.)
14. Check idle SCVs/misc. stuff (I didn't Supply Depot block my 3rd, etc.)
15. Rebind camera hotkeys

Lategame macro cycle (short, used during battles)
1. Unit spam
2. Lay down a production facility

LG-IMMvp (정종현) | LG-IM | Long live the King!

Servius_Fulvius United States. July 02 2012 02:08. Posts 947

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When I started playing and when I play multiplayer I tend to go:

Inject
Overlord
Build
Upgrade
Creep
(optional scout or move units)

I stopped doing this in the early game because many of the actions are "built in" with all the repetition of learning my builds.

As the late game progresses it becomes "inject, build, upgrade, expand (or static defense/replace drones)", but most of the time I'm managing battles and only have time to inject and check upgrades. I'm working on trying to fit the cycles into late game more efficiently.

Last edit: 2012-07-02 02:10:06

shishy United States. July 02 2012 02:36. Posts 115

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Master Terran, this cycle usually comes naturally since it's what I got used to:

Look at supply (See if I need to make depots)
Check orbitals/CC/PF to make SCVS
Check production on army units
Check upgrades
Then I go back to my Orbitals to check energy, and decide if I need to mule or save scans in case I am pushing (e.g. TvZ for creep or TvT/TvP for enemy positioning)
Then I look at resources right after making units to see if I have extra that I can invest in Army, Tech, or Econ (Depending on what's appropriate).
I constantly hotkey my army at the end and examine my map presence at this time before I repeat the cycle.

When I am pushing or what not, I always push right after I make new units, not after they are done so I can push initially without worrying about macro immediately. When I need to macro during a push, I make sure I position myself so I don't get raped while I am doing something else.

SC2John United States. July 02 2012 05:03. Posts 916

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I think, during my time 2raxing, I was able to develop a fairly good early- to mid-game cycle that goes something like this:

1. build SCVs/MULES
2. build units (2 marines/1 marauder)
3. build supply depot
4. rally rax

The first 3 are done watching the minimap as well as money. In general, I try to look at the minimap while building a building and look at my money/supply when building units. Practicing 2rax in a custom game will immensely help any terran player to understand and practice a macro cycle.

I'm still trying to understand how to macro well at 10:00+, experimenting with different things. In general, my APM as terran drops off the edge after a certain point because I don't know what to do when I don't need to make supply depots or make SCVs, as dumb as that sounds. It's easier for zerg because you're ALWAYS doing the same actions the entire game.

Last edit: 2012-07-02 05:04:24

rufflesQueso July 02 2012 05:23. Posts 100

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Terran

*Pay very close attention to minimap while going through the cycle.
1. Check resources / supply
2. Build SCVs
3. Build Units
4. Upgrades
5. Allocate left over resources where needed
6. Cycle through CCs/OCs for saturation.

After macro cycle:
1. Micro
2. Repeat macro cycle

Last edit: 2012-07-02 05:26:30

Yoshi Kirishima United States. July 02 2012 05:34. Posts 9002

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Same here, I don't have a drilled-in cycle. Now of course that's not exactly a good thing, since I often hit ~2000/1000 min/gas lol. But still, my supply/res/energy awareness is improving, so I guess i'll work on one later.

Mid-master streaming MECH ONLY + commentary www.twitch.tv/yoshikirishima +++ "If all-in fails, all-in again."

Kotreb Croatia. July 02 2012 05:49. Posts 491

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On July 02 2012 02:00 HeeroFX wrote:

Show nested quote +

Lol same here. I just keep in mind what i want to do and just do it.

yeah, same here. i know what i want to do and just do it.

If you don't sin Jesus died for nothing.

KingLumps July 02 2012 05:54. Posts 71

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I play toss

1. Probes
2. Units
3. Pylon(s)
4. Forges/other upgrades

If I still have extra resources then more gates/production/expo

iSuck

LiSAuCE United States. July 02 2012 09:11. Posts 33

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Don't know if you guys remember this, but someone posted a thread of protoss pimpin'

P - production
I - income
M - minimap
p - pylons

Breaking this down to:

1. probes
2. pylons
3. warpgates
4. robo/stargate
5. upgrades and tech(storm, charge)
7. observers (2-3, check up on them, move them around, see whats up)
6. expand? (y/n)

Throw in check minimap every 2-3 steps.

http://www.teamliquid.net/blogs/viewblog.php?topic_id=203113

"Ashley Schaeffer BMW! Woo!"

Clarity_nl Netherlands. July 02 2012 15:20. Posts 3283

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I think the better way to look at it is: In what order do you check what needs doing? And if multiple things need doing, what do you do first? (they should be one and the same, but it's possible that they're not) If you can be conscious of this it'll help

As for mine:

Production (watch minimap)
Overlords (watch minimap)
Army movement
Injects (watch minimap)
Tech/gas etc
Creep
Overlord spread (watch minimap)
Saturation check

If too much is going on or I'm playing too slow, stuff at the bottom gets scrapped. Army movement includes scouting, burrowing lings at expansions, battles etc etc

Last edit: 2012-07-02 15:27:58

More gg, more skill.

Cheshyr United States. July 02 2012 21:09. Posts 75

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This has gone an interesting direction, and there's a lot of good info here. My intent was to find a keyboard cycle that I can practice spamming to get my APM up. From there, I can make deviations for things like Build Order, Defense, Aggresion, etc. It hadn't occured to me that many people use custom hotkey setups.

In all the following cases, keeping an eye on the Minimap was assumed.

For Terran, it appears almost everyone starts with SCVs. Half the cycles didn't mention Mules, and none of those that did were consistent with each other. Some people check supply before SCVS, most after Units. The most general 'summary' of the cycles listed appears to be:

SCVs
Units
Supply
Saturation
Upgrades
Other Misc (Spend Extra Money, Rally, Rebind Army, Rebind Cameras, etc)

Protoss seems pretty consistent, although the top three appeared in 3 different permutations.

Probes
Pylons
Units
Special Units
Upgrades
Other Misc (Observer Placement, Expand, etc)

The Zerg lists were pretty sparse. This is likely because Zerg is a reactionary race, but you'd think it could benefit from some of the structure the other race's cycles show.