MY GOALS
1) HC ASAP off course
2) Build my ONE house in time to experience no delay in vil 5
3) Maximize my exploration quickly to determine a) if I am really screwed for wood (may need to find wood/food pit spot) and b) assuming wood is OK.. find my berries FAST.. unless c) I luck into a QUICK and good SF spot.
Most of the time I will be hoping to place a granary fast.
OK so at the start of the game my mouse is center on my screen to make it easy to grab two vils.
Time 0 sec.. game starts (ignore any loss to due lag on zone in my description) and then
you H with left index finger.. C w/same finger while grabbing two vils(v1 and v2) to select them w/mouse in right hand.
Time now 1 sec .. B w/left index E w/left middle finger while PLACING THE HOUSE RIGHT IN BACK OF v1 and v2 so that they DON'T HAVE to walk.
Time now 2 sec .. house started and I select v3 and send him off into the fog w/out way pointing him yet.
Time now 3 sec .. select v1 and way point him a ways and by time is 5 sec he will stop building the house
Time now 4 sec.. house and vil are 20% done and if are fast enough you may immediately send v1 exploring but clearly he can be sent off by 5 sec.
Time now 5 sec and your house is 30% done at v4 is 25% done so you need no longer have 2 v's building the house and you don't as v1 has just started exploring !.. now select v3 and way point him a ways.
Time now 7 sec.. grab all 3 vils with wide mouse click and assign them ctrl #3 . Now you can get them all to your food spot later quickly.
Time 9 sec or so... HCCC and reassign way points as neccessary based upon what you have seen and continue to readjust as necessary
Time now 19 sec.. house complete and send v2 quickly into the fog w/out way pointing yet.
Time now 20 sec.. v4 is born.. way point him to explore and add him to your ctrl group (shift 3 ctrl 3) unless he is running (hopefully) to your found berry spot.
Time now 22 sec unless you have your food spot.. way point v2 to explore.
OK what have I achieved in my first 22 sec and why is it best ? Lets compare vs two other starting methods.
VS the old fashioned build house until 50% method I have started my 2nd explorer 2 sec earlier. (VS guys that walk to place house at edge of fog.. I will have gained more exploring time) Placing the house at the edge of the fog does indeed give you some exploration.. however it means that the slight gain inexploration is duplicated by both vils and hence some effiency is reduced. Also assuming it takes 3 sec to walk to the edge of the fog,your house will begin at 5 sec and at 10 sec it will be 50% done as will v4 and you can begin exploration. However, this method loses 5 to 6 sec of early exploration time vs my method (however it gains maybe 2 or 3 sec heading to the edge of the fog) All told, I think my method rates to gain about 3 critical seconds of early exploration time vs placing the house at the edge of the fog. I don't feel the loss of potential farming space by having the house closer to my TC matters much. Additionally, any potential slight loss of mobility near my TC is counter balanced by the times I had placed my house at the edge of the fog and found out it was in the way of my best pit of granary location.
VS the build the house with ONE vil method... this method achieves EXACTLY the same early exploration because I can immediately start my 2nd explorer as soon as I have finished assigning my first explorer.
Unfortunately, guys building the house w/one vil lose 2 sec in waiting for the house to finish. Hence, v4,5,6,7 are delayed 2 sec. My method results in NO villlager delay and NO loss in exploration.
I know this all may seem pedantic.. but the early game is almost an exact science. This method allows me to maximize my early exploration and lose NO vil creation time.. the only limit is how fast I can type and click.
... neilkaz...