schiznak Profile Joined October 2009 Australia 257 Posts Last Edited: 2010-07-14 21:02:23 #1 Im not sure if this has been covered in a thread yet (I searched, all i could find was offhand comments) so i apologize if this is old news.



I was bored, and i was wondering what the specific conversion is between in-game APM (The little box that appears when pressing M when watching a replay) and real APM (Your actions per minute), I thought they may have fixed that discrepancy by now (I'm fairly sure Dustin Browder mentioned working on a fix to it at some event day[9] and losingID8 went to)



Well, as the thread title suggests, they didn't. Using a metronome i clicked once per second, and watching the replay my APM was consistently 40.



So for those of you who enjoy the manhood measuring contest that is APM, just multiply your in game APM by 1.5.





As a side-note, this all started because I was worried that I was playing with similar APM than when i used to play brood war. I was a fairly lackluster Broodwar player, rocking a cool-headed 100-110 apm, But now it turns out my SC2 APM is actually 160-170 on long games, which i never expected to be able to reach. Also APM=/skill, it is merely loosely correlated with it.







EDIT: I realise that this has nothing to do with strategy, i just posted it in the wrong place.(im sleepy), surely a benevolent mod could help a brother out. "That's very e-sports of you to have the camera focused on the people instead of the game" -ultradavid

No_Roo Profile Joined February 2010 United States 905 Posts #2 The APM meter on replays is actually measuring actions per game minute is why there is a discrepancy, (You're playing on fastest)



I kinda doubt they will fix this because they're maintaining consistency with all the measurements of time as game time, The unfortunate thing is that they didn't make fastest 1:1 game time to real time since it is the standard play speed. (US) NoRoo.fighting

Phayze Profile Blog Joined June 2009 Canada 2021 Posts #3 Kind of ridiculous that this still hasnt been fixed. I'm kind of astonished that they haven't bothered to change this. Perhaps this also makes the income tab completely whacked. This means, instead of 160apm im probably sitting over 200 over 30 minute games (Which is what I should be at). Proud member of the LGA-1366 Core-i7 4Ghz Club

NukeTheBunnys Profile Joined July 2010 United States 986 Posts #4 What I want to know is why is normal considered normal when everyone plays on fastest. The whole conversion between game time and real time can be confusing and Im just wondering why it exists, is it just a legacy artifact from BW, and if so why was it that way in BW When you play the game of drones you win or you die.

Empyrean Profile Blog Joined September 2004 16797 Posts #5 Moved to the main SC2 forum. Moderator

Rizzelet Profile Joined February 2008 United States 74 Posts #6 Yay for exactness. I tried calculating it myself but always ended up with a multiplier of around 1.33. Your method sounds a bit more precise so I'll just go with the 1.5 value. Also, I've had the same experience with moving from BW to SC2 in terms of my APM being a lot higher.

zee Profile Joined January 2010 201 Posts #7 On July 15 2010 06:06 NukeTheBunnys wrote:

What I want to know is why is normal considered normal when everyone plays on fastest. The whole conversion between game time and real time can be confusing and Im just wondering why it exists, is it just a legacy artifact from BW, and if so why was it that way in BW

And why isnt faster called fastest when its the fastest setting And why isnt faster called fastest when its the fastest setting

Chriamon Profile Joined April 2010 United States 865 Posts Last Edited: 2010-07-14 21:21:41 #8 Are you sure it is 1.5? I have heard it is 1.4 exactly (the speed of the game on faster). http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/profile/274906/1/Blaze/

koppik Profile Joined April 2010 United States 676 Posts Last Edited: 2010-07-14 21:35:20 #9



SC2 APM * 1.38 = SC:BW APM



So, someone with 150apm according to the counter in the game is really playing at 200 apm in actual minutes instead of "game minutes". Or, alternatively, the game isn't calculating apm, but rather action per "43 seconds")



On that note, why does blizzard count seconds on a speed no one plays at? It's true for build times too and everything, and it's confusing. It's not even a nice ratio you can do in your head. From the liquipedia article , "faster" is 38% faster than normal, which is how APM is calculated. So,SC2 APM * 1.38 = SC:BW APMSo, someone with 150apm according to the counter in the game is really playing at 200 apm ininstead of "game minutes". Or, alternatively, the game isn't calculating apm, but rather action per "43 seconds")On that note, why does blizzard count seconds on a speed no one plays at? It's true for build times too and everything, and it's confusing. It's not even a nice ratio you can do in your head.

Tamerlane Profile Joined July 2009 Canada 424 Posts #10



TL;DR : the fastest speed setting is at least 36% faster than the reference speed (build time numbers) and it might even reach something like 40% considering that the normal speed setting is 3% slower than reference - I think a good average approximation would be 38%, that means if your APM displayed in the replay is 100, your actual APM was more around 135-140



I will probably redo the tests when I will get a new comp, as I feel that simply running the game in windowed mode in background induced some discrepency - hopefully that will disappear when I get a much better comp I made some tests on the actual "time rate" conversions, you can find the full results in this thread : http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=117215 TL;DR : the fastest speed setting is at least 36% faster than the reference speed (build time numbers) and it might even reach something like 40% considering that the normal speed setting is 3% slower than reference - I think a good average approximation would be 38%, that means if your APM displayed in the replay is 100, your actual APM was more around 135-140I will probably redo the tests when I will get a new comp, as I feel that simply running the game in windowed mode in background induced some discrepency - hopefully that will disappear when I get a much better comp

QuothTheRaven Profile Joined December 2008 United States 5512 Posts #11 A month or two ago Day9 said he brought up this issue to the developers, who were apparently not aware of it, and they promised that they'd fix it to be more accurate with real time. I haven't really looked at APM since then, but it's possible that the old experimental data is now outdated. . . . nevermore

Ossian Profile Joined May 2010 Sweden 88 Posts #12 wow this means I have pretty decent apm lol all makt åt tengil vår befriare

Piski Profile Blog Joined April 2010 Finland 3460 Posts #13 On July 15 2010 06:40 QuothTheRaven wrote:

A month or two ago Day9 said he brought up this issue to the developers, who were apparently not aware of it, and they promised that they'd fix it to be more accurate with real time. I haven't really looked at APM since then, but it's possible that the old experimental data is now outdated.



I doubt they have or will fix it in the near future. They have so many other more important things to worry about.

But I still hope they do I doubt they have or will fix it in the near future. They have so many other more important things to worry about.But I still hope they do

bleh Profile Joined June 2010 85 Posts #14 Well the obvious solution is to change the term to AP43S

Bob300 Profile Joined April 2010 United States 505 Posts #15 It shouldn't really matter because everyone has the same timing so the apm will still be the right differential. NYC Suburbs --- College Freshman --- Season 1 - Drone Whiskey

Spidermonkey Profile Joined April 2010 United States 251 Posts #16 On July 15 2010 08:11 Bob300 wrote:

It shouldn't really matter because everyone has the same timing so the apm will still be the right differential.



Yea, propotionally you still suck compared to the Korean pro's.. Yea, propotionally you still suck compared to the Korean pro's.. ~ Richard Trahan

ktimekiller Profile Blog Joined May 2010 United States 690 Posts #17



From what I understand, real APM in SC2 is slightly higher than the indicated amount, but how does it translate to BW APM calculations? (No, I am not trying to say SC2 APM is the same as BW APM gameplay wise , I am merely asking concerning the technical side of calculating the APM itself timewise) How was the APM calculated in BW in comparison to the current APM calculation in SC2?From what I understand, real APM in SC2 is slightly higher than the indicated amount, but how does it translate to BW APM calculations? (No, I am not trying to say SC2 APM is the same as BW APM gameplay wise, I am merely asking concerning the technical side of calculating the APM itself timewise)

Motiva Profile Joined November 2007 United States 1774 Posts #18 I agree this is retarded and needs to be fixed.

ataryens Profile Joined June 2010 Iran 207 Posts #19 so 20 x 1.38 = 27.6!!!! YAA!!! im the man.

The_Voidless Profile Joined March 2010 United States 184 Posts #20 I imagine it would be fixed before release but its not like you do not know that your apm is higher per real minute. If you're not first you're last.

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