Forged Alliance Forever

Re: How do I increase APM?

2016-07-31T07:33:12+02:00

ZLO_RD wrote:
How much apm do you have?
You should rather focus on apm efficiency, multitasking and map awarness.
40 APM is enought to get in top 100 for sure.
Best players usually have around 60-120 apm.
But keep in mind that we don't have good tools to mesure apm so numbers can be very inacurate (select 20 factories, queue 20 units with 4 clicks = 5 clicks but will count as 400 actions, but also all selection and map movement actions not count at all)

Edit: use hotbuild (press f1 in game to setup hotkeys)
If that will be not enought you can even make custom hotkeys by editing settings file

Use templates (there is a tutorial on youtube)
There are factory templates as well
Try to play zoomed out

Choice between micro and macro is kinda obvius, if there is alot of value in your army you should micro it, but you often can just click retreat and macro in that time.

Economy managment is very important cause unit controll is kinda easy in FA (cause units shoot while move, no need for alot of baby sitting)

i saw voodoo's video when he was fighting againist someone, he had some UI mod or something, he can put mexes without choosing them, just clicks on the deposits. Any idea what is this?

Statistics: Posted by Masyaka — 31 Jul 2016, 07:33

Re: How do I increase APM?

2016-07-20T01:54:47+02:00

KeyBlue wrote:
How big is your hand? (rhetorical)

How do you go from Q(reclaim) to O(overcharge) without looking at your keyboard?
Do you hover your hand over the keyboard like a piano player?

I put my hand at the standard QSDF (or ASDF) position for typing, so going to O would be quite a stretch.
Y is my comfort limit at the moment.

So a little explanation of how you do that (maybe a picture or short video) would be quite helpfull.

PS: after looking at it some more, i can see that the important stuff is close together, so maybe outliers aren't an issue as they are uncommon?

For Overcharge I have to move my hand quite a bit, I'm aware of this issue, but unfortunately also running out of keyboard space. Ctrl+L is surprisingly very easy for me though with little finger + thumb, I guess O is just harder to find with thumb so I usually resort to moving my hand which is a bad habit. There might be large differences between different keyboards as well.

I've played guitar since I was 11, that might help a bit with stretching, but I don't think it makes that much of a difference - could be wrong though, I don't really have a good point of reference.

It might be a good idea to concentrate on apm for a few games, to get a good idea of what exactly is holding you back the most apm wise. Like I said, usually the problem is mental rather than physical.

Statistics: Posted by Blodir — 20 Jul 2016, 01:54

Re: How do I increase APM?

2016-07-20T01:49:19+02:00

Or you can just have a big hand that can touch Shift and most other buttons .

Spoiler: show

Statistics: Posted by Lieutenant Lich — 20 Jul 2016, 01:49

Re: How do I increase APM?

2016-07-19T22:24:25+02:00

I've never really paid attention to what my hands are doing. I can touch time with a speed of about 120 words per minute. When typing the left and right index fingers will commonly sit on the F and J keys. With the other digits hovering over keys ASD and ;LK and thumbs resting on the space bar. It is easy to locate these positions by touch because of the raised attachments on the index F and J keys.

When playing Supreme Commander I have my right hand on the mouse, and my left index finger normally sitting on the B key. As I will commonly be using the Build Menu to issue construction orders. I have learnt to shift my hand the exact distance and strike the correct keys without looking. I strike the keys with the following fingers:
- B left index
- P left index
- U left index
- T middle
- R middle
- E 4th finger (or index when holding left shift with 5th finger)
- Q 4th finger (or middle when holding shift with 5th finger)

What I find usually helps is that most of my keyboard strokes are executed while holding left shift. This tends to anchor my hand and make it possible to strike a lot of keys accurately and without looking.b

Statistics: Posted by Hawkei — 19 Jul 2016, 22:24

Re: How do I increase APM?

2016-07-19T20:12:49+02:00

How big is your hand? (rhetorical)

How do you go from Q(reclaim) to O(overcharge) without looking at your keyboard?
Do you hover your hand over the keyboard like a piano player?

I put my hand at the standard QSDF (or ASDF) position for typing, so going to O would be quite a stretch.
Y is my comfort limit at the moment.

So a little explanation of how you do that (maybe a picture or short video) would be quite helpfull.

PS: after looking at it some more, i can see that the important stuff is close together, so maybe outliers aren't an issue as they are uncommon?

Statistics: Posted by KeyBlue — 19 Jul 2016, 20:12

Re: How do I increase APM?

2016-07-19T19:51:38+02:00

Thanks to nocaps for this graphic of my current hotkey setup

Besides that, usually apm comes with experience. From my experience usually people are more limited by deciding where to move their attention, rather than actual speed of execution. If you want to practice execution speed a fun trick is to go to a custom 1v1 with a friend and play it on +2 speed.

Statistics: Posted by Blodir — 19 Jul 2016, 19:51

Re: How do I increase APM?

2016-07-19T13:43:40+02:00

object

kinda like that

Statistics: Posted by Petricpwnz — 19 Jul 2016, 13:43

Re: How do I increase APM?

2016-07-19T12:44:23+02:00

Your APM will increase as you learn more about the game. You'll have to spend less time thinking about what you should do and more time just doing stuff.

Statistics: Posted by JaggedAppliance — 19 Jul 2016, 12:44

Re: How do I increase APM?

2016-07-19T08:47:36+02:00

Click faster... The truth is however that you don't really need it. Better skills worth mastering are anticipation, and awareness. As long as you are giving all your units something to do, and they are not spending time idle, all extra APM is mostly wasted.

I have an app on my computer for measuring APM, which I have running in the background. My typical average APM is about 100 or 120, and this goes up to about 200 during intense play. I don't feel the need to have higher APM than this, as usually I find the issue is in being able to control everything that is going on. Managing an eco, and giving 500 to 1000 units all something to do. Using all my mass, and most of my energy, planning ahead, and understanding what my opponent is trying to do. All this combined is much more of a critical matter - rather than simply focusing on clicking faster...

In short, to get things happening quickly, with no down time, you need to think fast, you need to play instinctively, and execute orders quickly. Get to know the Build menu, and hotbuild. Learn all the hotkeys. Being able to use both hands and all your control devices will increase your APM.

Statistics: Posted by Hawkei — 19 Jul 2016, 08:47

Re: How do I increase APM?

2016-07-19T03:34:13+02:00

Yeah, I just went with an advice from my old good friend and made many hotkeys (and Suicide Confirmation mod). Q for facs, W - mexes, D - power, T - PD, Y - AA, G - torps. I do not have unit templates for factories but I have building templates, like walled PD, mex + 4 facs, wall sections, 4 mass storage to cap mexes, etc... Those got me higher.

Then there is economy managements. That is something to work on. A trainer will help.

Build orders - very simple to create some build order in one factory, then sequence it up, set others to assist it and done, your spam is rollin' hard. My 2 cents.

Statistics: Posted by Lieutenant Lich — 19 Jul 2016, 03:34

Re: How do I increase APM?

2016-07-18T03:53:43+02:00

im not sure getting higher tech is a apm issue

look over a replay and watch eco values etc

if you need any hotkeys make a button for manual reclaim so you can spam it

Statistics: Posted by biass — 18 Jul 2016, 03:53

Re: How do I increase APM?

2016-07-17T13:04:41+02:00

Something useful - how to create keyboard shortcuts: http://forums.faforever.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=8230

Statistics: Posted by RealityCheck — 17 Jul 2016, 13:04

Re: How do I increase APM?

2016-07-17T11:32:37+02:00

How much apm do you have?
You should rather focus on apm efficiency, multitasking and map awarness.
40 APM is enought to get in top 100 for sure.
Best players usually have around 60-120 apm.
But keep in mind that we don't have good tools to mesure apm so numbers can be very inacurate (select 20 factories, queue 20 units with 4 clicks = 5 clicks but will count as 400 actions, but also all selection and map movement actions not count at all)

Edit: use hotbuild (press f1 in game to setup hotkeys)
If that will be not enought you can even make custom hotkeys by editing settings file

Use templates (there is a tutorial on youtube)
There are factory templates as well
Try to play zoomed out

Choice between micro and macro is kinda obvius, if there is alot of value in your army you should micro it, but you often can just click retreat and macro in that time.

Economy managment is very important cause unit controll is kinda easy in FA (cause units shoot while move, no need for alot of baby sitting)

Statistics: Posted by ZLO_RD — 17 Jul 2016, 11:32

Re: How do I increase APM?

2016-07-17T10:21:43+02:00

I played Starcraft 2 and this game for a long time and from what I tried to improve APM, the best solution is drink coffe like water, talk with your drug provider to take some snow and put some candles to Lucifer...
Also you must play 5x5, that small shits someone call maps are good to improve micro since map is too small to do any other thing rater than spam facts and units.

Statistics: Posted by NapSpan — 17 Jul 2016, 10:21

How do I increase APM?

2016-07-17T05:01:58+02:00

I often find myself doing badly late game in maps like Roanoke and Syrtis Major because the other player is able to micro way more efficiently and eventually overpower with higher tech/spam.

Thus I set out to increase my APM. I have a couple of questions:

What are some of the things/hotkeys/techniques that help APM?
What are some good maps for practicing speed with air, naval, and land?
What are some techniques that require a lot of APM from the opponent?
When is micro'ing with eco more/less important than with units?
Are split windows/dual monitor setup practical in this game?
Would you recommend any UI mods that aid in APM?

Statistics: Posted by Evan_ — 17 Jul 2016, 05:01