While this is for a non melee map, I feel it is relevant, since it only has to do with mining minerals.

In a UMS map "Build Tug-o-war", you get to build guys to mine and upgrade and such. Well, a few people I've played against seem to have impossibly awesome skills at mining, and can simultaneously build probes/scvs and immediately tell both to mine as soon as they are built (and the build time is 15, making it even harder).

I whispered one of these guys who did this, and he told me it was "hotkey microing", implying that he has his nexus and command center hotkeyed and is building scvs and probes quickly with both. But this doesn't explain how he gets them to mine so quickly. I've got 3 ideas:

Some people are badass, like the dude who can kill infinite lurkers with three marines.
There's some trick I'm missing here, though rally point onto minerals doesn't work.
He's using oblivion/some other hack to build and automatically go to mine.

I'm thinking the third, but anyone else have any ideas on 1 and 2?

All it takes is fast, accurate clicking... You could post a replay if you think he is going impossibly fast.

Or maybe he's setting the rally point really close to the minerals and when the probe/scv move close enough he selects them and the makes them mine. Making it seem like they were already selected to mine the second they left the cc/nexus.

Get Bwcharts and compare his timing !

There is also a hack that makes workers auto-mine.

So here is an example. This is the first encounter I had with someone who COMPLETELY outclassed me in mining speed, and while I'm a bit of a slouch, I still manage to beat most pubbies. After I figured out he was either cheating or crazy awesome, I sorta gave up.

Now, this particular replay doesn't have him building scvs and probes at the same time, but it still seems impossibly fast. The other guy who told me "hotkey microing" was even faster than this.

Attachments:

I can safely say he has automine hack. He isn't even setting way points.

Is it also safe to assume that just about anyone who mines faster than he does is ALSO using an automine hack? I was certain this guy was, especially since he only built 1 probe at a time, leading me to believe he had it on auto repeat action (a perk in oblivion). It also seemed like he had on multicommand as well.

In oblivion, there's also the ability to make the workers from EVERY nexus/hatchery/command center to auto mine right when they are built.

Likely. I'd say you're screwed if you have to go up against someone using Oblivion.

Actually, it's possible to mine a lot faster than you realize...I've beaten people with the automine hack at Build Tug O' War before without using any sort of hack myself, by using good unit counters to overcome the advantage offered by the hack. It's only possible to do so if you can nearly match its speed and have compensating advantages in strategy. The guy in the replay you attached slowed down his mining early on when he was massing, even exceeding 100 minerals at some points. Since mining accelerates exponentially, a small difference at the very start can equate to a large difference later on; I could definitely see some of the people I used to play against (who were faster than I was at my fastest...I'm not hyper-fast anymore) legitimately exceeding the speed of the hacker shown in that replay.

Just remember, all the hack does is automatically assign the workers to get the minerals. If you repeatedly practice the physical act of catching a newly-built worker and assigning it to the minerals, and work at high APM at the beginning to get a clean launch, subsequently spending all your attention on mining (DO NOT TYPE BEFORE YOU HAVE MAXIMUM MINERS, EVER, EVEN IF YOUR TEAMMATE KEEPS NAGGING YOU), you can do almost as well as the hack does, enough that with a better start, you can out-earn him.

Usually, hackers are people who can't compensate other's speeds without using it. And they are slow even with hacks. Sadly.

I just think it's inherently sad that anyone would use hacks on ums maps. That is, a significant step more so than usual.

I haven't tried myself, but is it not the best idea to just set the rally point near them, as suggested? Seems like it should work, as it gives you longer to react providing you can still catch a moving worker =P.

Yeah, definitely a hacker, I admit that I sometimes do the same thing, you turn on global queue, make a probe, make an SCV, have automine on, and bam, superfast mining, and I can use multiselect during my freetime I have, since I don't need to mine, to totally mass my units and own my opponents.

Doesn't this go against some basic Christian rule?

He also didn't have any hotkeys.

Show me someone that always practices what they preach. But yeah, wth man.

Falkoner hacks his ass off tbh ;[

He'd come into you game and drop hack the lobby ;_;

It's a game.

Also, I don't hack in serious games, like storm the fort, games that are ruined if you hack, just joke ones like tug of war.

As I said earlier, who are you to decide which games are serious? Hacking in Tug of War gives you a bigger advantage than in Storm the Fort. The bottom line is that no matter what it is, you are cheating. Cheating is bad. You fail as a religious nut.

Him and Zell NEVER remember to turn off their fucking hacks in Temple Siege either, so they drop. Then when we have the decency to rm for him if he promises not to hack, we activate the anti-hack 20 minutes in and BAM *drop*. Tug-of-War obviously needs this anti-hack.