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Is there any way to have workers spread out to all nearest crystal straight away at the start of a game? Selecting all workers and sending them to 1 crystal node makes them all swarm to that node after which they start to spread out. This seems inefficient and inconsistent with their otherwise intelligent behaviour.

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Split the workers by sending 3 to one side and 3 to other side.

It doesn't give much advantage, but pros like to do it.

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  • This does seem to be the only alternative worth considering but not advantageous on most maps.
    – Lawyerson
    May 7, 2011 at 22:51
  • This does give a pretty substantial advantage though. Gives a few extra minerals right off... can help timings by a few seconds and overall help later gameplay... early gameplay is very important.
    – Nick122
    May 25, 2012 at 22:54
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This really depends on your Actions Per Minute (APM). Your best bet is to first send them to a central mineral node, and then split them off in groups to different mineral nodes mid transit.

An alternate method is to select idle worker (F1) and individually hit a mineral node. However this prevents them from moving until you tell them where to go.

I've seen the computer player individually split each worker to a different mineral node at the start of the game, but their APM is well over 9000.

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  • The F1 trick is pretty easy, and consistently yields better return for me. This is the only way I can begin training my 2nd worker before the 1st is finished.
    – tenfour
    May 8, 2011 at 14:32
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    Whaat? APM over 9000?
    – bummzack
    May 9, 2011 at 7:17
  • @tenfour: you should try CTRL+F1 at beginning of the game, then right-click on a mineral, then select your CC/nexus/hatch, then build worker shortcut. Works for me all the time.
    – tharibo
    May 9, 2011 at 10:19
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    lol, I have to call B.S. on the APM over 9000... lol
    – Nick122
    May 25, 2012 at 22:56
  • @Nick122 obviously your scouter is broken
    – Atav32
    Jun 6, 2012 at 20:43
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I do the following on the start of every game:

  1. Fast click the CC/Nexus/Hatch and create a worker.
  2. Drag-click, select ALL workers (6) and send them to a single mineral patch.
    1. As they move to the mineral patch, drag-click and select 2-3 workers and send them to a mineral patch at the end of the row (top or bottom ends).

This ensures 2 things: I keep the CC/Nexus/Hatch busy ASAP creating a new worker, and I try to spread the workers out to un-occupied mineral patches.

You actually have a decent window of time for this. Think about it: the whole point to doing this crazy fast-click-drag-move-click-select-send move(s) is to have 50 minerals in the bank by the time the 1st worker is completed out of the Nexus/CC/Hatch. It's to keep the center busy building workers (no down time). The window at which this occurs after sending units to minerals is tight, but not so tight that the delay the workers impose by moving to un-occupied mineral patches will throw it off too much. If your good, you can nail it every time and the CC/Hatch/Nexus won't have any "down time" and you'll have that first 50 minerals in the bank ready to buy the next worker.

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The current client automatically puts your workers to work. I think you'd be hard pressed to do better than they do.

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I believe that this article on teamliquid is an answer for your question.

Summary: if you can fluently split your workers - do it to warm up. But you'll not take a big advantage with this.

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    @Meta: We have a policy on answers that are able to be Googled: Even if you can get the answer in the first few results in Google, we still like to see the answer on Gaming if the answer could be improved. In the example you linked, the answer could be cleaned up a bit to be more concise and simply link out for details. You did this, but with perhaps a little more snark (lmgtfy + tinyurl) than was warranted. Be nice to new users. That's how they become loyal users. :)
    – Shaun
    May 7, 2011 at 20:43
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    @Meta I don't think this article was likely to show up in my Google results. I was not aware of anything referred to as "splitting" nor was I specifically looking for a comparison between opening moves. The article you linked to does confirm k00pa's answer though and suggests that there can be a very slight advantage to doing it that way but nothing that would warrant the risk of screwing it up.
    – Lawyerson
    May 7, 2011 at 21:46
  • I love a good lmgtfy link, but to echo Shaun, if you need to add unusual words to your lmgtfy to force a particular top result (e.g. 'teamliquid'), it's probably not lmgtfy material. ;)
    – Wikwocket
    May 8, 2011 at 2:01
  • Oh and @Parusa, yes it's true that unless you have great control, the gain from this can be dwarfed by the chance of doing it wrong. Often I tell my SCV's to go stand next to the minerals doing nothing!
    – Wikwocket
    May 8, 2011 at 2:03
  • @Shaun. ok, I've removed link to lgmtfy
    – Meta
    May 9, 2011 at 7:00

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