Explain it to me if you can:
At the beginning of the game I create 2 control groups and then i spam these control groups like 1-2-1-2-1-2 etc. and i’m boxing workers. This yields approx -250-300 APM. Meanwhile some other people, i saw on stream, are doing exactly the same and they can get 500-600. How can they double APM like that ?
I tried everything:
- rapid fire
- setting repeat rate/delay in OS to maximum
- tweaking settings in regedit
but my APM did not change at all. Does it have anything to do with macros or specific keyboards which register a single key press twice ?
APM is not important to me - i just want to know what stands behind this bullsh*t. People these days can artificially inflate their APM in various ways.
More control groups lol. If I’m feeling spammy, I can get over 1000 APM just tapping between 3 control groups.
Not like it’s important though.
Dude
Can you read with comprehension ? I said TWO control groups. I can show you a streamer who creates only 2 control groups and spams them repeatedly and gets up to 600 APM.
Btw if you can get 1000 APM with just 3 control groups then you must have changed some settings in the OS. For me it’s impossible to get 1000 APM even if i spam 5 control groups.
No need to be rude. Either way, I just tested it, I can achieve around 900 APM spamming two control groups, without doing much of anything else. Repeat rate wouldn’t affect that, as I’m not holding the keys.
There are games that generally are more taxing on the keyboard hand than Starcraft anyway, where speed is concerned. For example Osu: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rl_zDfsUBB4
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Do you use some sort of rapid fire like adding your control groups to list of buttons ? If you never changed any settings in your OS (regedit, repeat rate/delay) then i have no clue how you can get 900 APM just by spamming 2 buttons. Unless you have some keyboard with built in macros that send multiple signals when a single button is pressed.
Nope. I haven’t changed anything, and my keyboard is just some cheap £30 thing, there’s no software for it or anything. 15 years of playing piano has probably given me rather quick fingers…
I do use rapid fire, but it’s bound to Z which is my creep key, among other things (I use grid), so wouldn’t make a difference for control group spamming.
No way!
Either way it’s black magic for me. Maybe my computer is old from 2009/2010 with rather low fps, but at the beginning of the game i have 90-100 fps so it shouldn’t have impact on APM.
I assume you use a mechanical keyboard? That probably helps.
I have very old Tracer TRK -CRB keyboard (probably membrane - couldn’t find detailed info). But how can keyboard type affect APM ?
For a similar reason to why a proper hammer-action piano is better for playing fast than a keyboard, even though the piano has heavier keys. The keys are quicker to bounce back up and reset to ‘neutral’ allowing quicker successive key presses. Membrane keyboards are kinda mushy in comparison to mechanical ones.
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It’s not about keypresses. You don’t press keys faster that i do. For some unknown reason your keyboard sends double or even triple amount of signals than mine. Possibly due to technical specificaton.
If you’re still not convinced then watch this video from some twitch streamer:
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2304192780
at 01:08:35 and in the beginning of most his games - his APM spikes to over 500 despite the fact he only has 2 control groups and he’s not even doing lots of keypresses.
It’s not about how fast you press keys - it’s about your equipment and possible OS settings.
Bind rapid fire to c. Select your workers. Hold down C. Watch your apm spike.
The APM argument with regards to race is hilarious because the first thing you will notice is that protoss is much lower than the other races. Protoss will then explain this by saying spamming is the cause and then the obvious question is why don’t protoss spam. Protoss is the one race where everyone had a gentleman’s agreement to not spam. Nice argument there. They say there is a cabal of conspiratorial protoss planning to trick the whole world by agreeing to not spam. They do this even though it makes protoss look very overpowered and will likely result in it being nerfed. It’s the most inane theory ever conceived.
A good conspiracy theory is a small, short conspiracy with a strong force that binds the elements together. The reason for this is that it’s very hard to get people to cooperate because they have different interests, personalities, needs. That’s why almost all conspiracies are created by money or religion. The conspirators act out of greed or fanaticism and that keeps the organization together. So when Protoss say that every protoss on Earth is secretly doing things that will end up getting them nerfed, that’s a large, long term conspiracy where the conspirators act against their own interests. It’s the most brain dead theory on par with flat earth denialism. But it’s a theory peddled by even protoss grandmasters which is nuts. A secondary consequence of this realization is that SC2 doesn’t select for intelligence. Being intelligent is not what puts someone into grandmaster, at all.
It’s not conspiracy about certain race.
I would simply like to know how OverFjell can get 900 APM spamming 2 buttons. Yesterday i checked, i spammed 2 control groups for 30 seconds to the point that my wrist started to hurt and i got 550-620 peak. Care to explain ? This isn’t how fast you click - it’s mostly due to technical specification of your keyboard or settings in the OS (regedit/repeat rate etc.)
Honestly if you’ve ever seen a pianist play, I can absolutely believe that OverFjell can hit 900 apm off just two button presses; they’re absurdly fast depending on what they’re playing. It’s quite impressive to watch.
In part; mechanical over membrane definitely makes a difference, the depth that you have to press the key for it to trigger makes a difference as well, some keyboards can trigger on half presses as well, so that’s also a possibility. Repeat rate, as you said, can make a huge difference too.
I also know there’s a trick that can artificially inflate APM too, “return cargo” button on all selected workers makes your APM skyrocket for some reason.
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Right. I am speaking in general for people who tend to talk about apm spam.
Usually rapid fire. You bind rapid fire to the command that tells workers to return their minerals or the movement command. If you set your keyboard repeat rate to very high, you can hit 10,000 APM by rapid firing movement commands.
It could also be keyboard macros. There are programs that let you bind a macro to a key and if you hit that key it then does the actions in the macro. They then spam the macro key, each time creating 10 apm or whatever for a single button tap. The reason they spam is to double check the macro works & to train their brain to get used to the macros.
I am old enough that I used to use the pre-USB PS/2 port for my keyboard because it has lower-level system access than USB ports have, so just that hardware change alone made a difference in APM.
Also if you are moving your fingers independently then it won’t work. You have to bind a hotkey to 1 and 2 and put both fingers above 1 and 2. Then you tap both of them at the same time but you offset it so that one finger is higher than the other. This effectively gives you 2 apm per tap. It’s way faster than alternating your fingers.
Really ? I’m surprised this exists and even more surprised people actually use it in their games.
Anyway thanks to anyone who gave their explanation. Thread to be closed.
I’d say that the keyboard you use can have a decent affect on this, especially in the ways you mentioned, as well the travel distance of keys. Some people just have a ton of time to waste to find the way to get the highest APM possible.