2 or 3 workers per mineral patch?

[Twilice]

To me I always get 2 workers per mineral patch (and 3 per gas) But I saw crotas "tutorial" and he told the player to get a total of 30 workers per place. (8*3 + 2*3) Do you really get more minerals if you have 3 workers per mineral field?

*Not counting get extra workers temporarely to move on to the next expand.

[TheRabidDeer]

Yes, you do. The gain between 21 and 24 for minerals is quite small though, so its not entirely worth it unless you want to expand and transfer. I am unsure of just how much of a gain it is from 16 -> 21 though.

[ChAoS]

I wouldn't worry too too much about completely occupying the minerals. It's gas your gonna really want. But there was a tip on the load screen once that says that gas and minerals both take 2-3 workers to occupy fully. I just expand for gas and spread my scvs so all my bases look like they have a decent amount of scvs on them without hurting my pop in regards to my army.

[Twilice]

Yeah, it's about the same for me. You gain minerals to expand to a new expansion or expand your army supply and get towers to protect the expansions from harrasment.

But still it's not about if gas is more important then minerals, it's about how much is the difference. To me it looks like 2 workers at a mineral switch out almost perfectly with eachother, if you get a third extra it feels like they will just be in the way running around.

[silencbank]

On 16 workers you average about 600-680 minerals, with it steadily between the 620-640 range. On 24 workers you average 780-860 minerals with it usually about 820-840. Yes there will be some worker movement from mineral patch to patch. But the reason 3 per mineral patch is better is because the minerals are not the same distance away from the starting point. On the closer mineral patches 2 workers are indeed the perfect amount, but since there are usually just one or 2 that are as close as possible you need more workers to cover the extra distance.
Secondly, extra workers are needed to build things. If you have just 2 per mineral patch and take one off to build something there will be a time where that mineral patch will not be mined, where as if you have the 30 as Crota recommended when you build something the "runners" that move patch to patch will auto fill in whichever spot the last worker who left to build something had just vacated. Leaving virtually no downtime between mining while building. So love your Pepes, Daisys, or Steves in 3's. Three IS a magical number after all.

[ChAoS]

I find counting out how many workers I have on the minerals is a plain waste of time unless I'm zerg. As terran all I do is call down mules if I need minerals, gas is much more important. As zerg I still wouldn't put 30 on one mineral batch because they should expand more and you don't want your population to consist of mostly drones. Just enough drones to get the job done. As protoss I would assume it would be much like terran, needing a lot more gas then minerals.

[tam]

yes, u need alot more gas than minerals, but if u neglect minerals, u'll have the problem of running low on minerals, and high on gas

what everyone is saying is too. besides, u dont actually have to physically select and count how many probes u have dude for protoss. should basically have a feeling if its right or not. and mass selecting all the probes once should give u an idea as well. just remember when selecting a mass of probes, usually the top line consists of 8 or more probes depending how many units are selected, knowing that, if u select them all and see u have 3 lines, therefore u have 24 probes there, roughly. this usually gives u a rough idea of how many probes u have, and it only takes a second :P

[Maul]

I try and constantly pump workers because if you can come close to fully saturating your expansion(s) immediately it's the almost the same as literally doubling your income.

[DemolitionSquid]

I start with 16 until I'm secure on enough of a force/defense, then ill add the other 8.

[Gradius]

I try and constantly pump workers because if you can come close to fully saturating your expansion(s) immediately it's the almost the same as literally doubling your income.

Yeah, you're supposed to pump all the time, not stop at 16 or something.