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Hotkeys have been difficult for me, or I should say more difficult than they should be because I type with the Dvorak keyboard layout. For those that don't know Dvorak is a more efficient layout for typing because all the most common letters are on the home row making them very easy to get at. Where one normally has asdf I have aoeu. This has been great for chatting and essay writing but the standard hotkeys in SC2 are spread out awkwardly. I have been playing like that for a month and a half or so and things were just peachy.
However in the past few days my computer has been swapping keyboard layouts while I am in a game. I have been hitting some bizarre combo of keys that windows interprets as me wanting to go to qwerrty. This really screws up where I think the hotkeys actually are and then I lose.
I looked for a solution, trying to disable the layout swapping command, purge qwerty from my computer entirely and the like. They didn't work. Then in exasperation I went into SC2 and tried to come up with some custom hotkeys that would be intuitive (kindof) in both Dvorak and Qwerty when a solution presented itself.
Grid hotkeys. Hotkeys mapped to specific keys no matter what letters those keys mare correspond to. So if my computer decides to freak and change layouts it will not affect my game play. I still get to keep Dvoark and we are all happy.
Since the change over I have made a few silly mistakes given that the grid still feels new and awkward, but it is rapidly becoming less so. I have found if I rest my elbow on my arm rest and hold my hand above the keyboard instead of resting my wrist on my desk all of my fingers just kind of fall into place. Another advantage is that hotkeys for other races will be very very similar now, like in campaign or if I decide to play Protoss for fun.
Now I know that hotkeys setups are a very personal choice but there are more effect set ups than the standard set up clearly, even if you just customize a few. The grid just lets me use more hotkeys while remembering less as well as letting me keep my hand in one place and moving my fingers as little as possible. It's good for me. If you have no idea what I am talking about check it out. I think it's awesome.
Cheers
-=Hyyde=-
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Changing my keyboard layout to Grid for SC2 was probably the best thing I've done regarding SC2. It took me about two weeks to forget the normal hotkeys and force myself to use the correct hotkeys, but after that, everything seemed much easier! Off-racing is soooooooo easy to do once you memorize where everything appears in the command card. Another plus is you can impress(freak out) people by knowing the exact positions of every upgrade/unit/building/etc in the command card! :D
I've actually never heard of anyone using the Dvorak keyboard layout before. I know it is supposed to be more efficient, as you said, but how confusing is it for you when you go to use other computers that don't use Dvorak? I have to imagine it would be pretty frustrating, ^_^
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For those of you liking the grid layout, I use a modified grid that compress the sc2 keys into an even smaller zone of the keyboard.
The biggest problems of grid are:
· The "go to your next base" command remains in the backspace when choosing grid.
· The numbers 7, 8, 9 and 0 are still too far away and they could be used for control groups.
This is how I solve this two problems.
1) Remapping the backspace into caps lock. (This allow sick fast larva injects and probe chrono-boosting).
2) Remapping 7, 8, 9 and 0 into F1, F2, F3 and F4. (I use this ones for macro, for me is really comfortable).
3) Remapping F1 (iddle worker by default) means that I have to remap that command into another place. I put the iddle worker in the key to the left of the number 1 (it is the "º" and "ª" key in my keyboard.
With this setup you will have to move the "save cammera" into F5 and so on, and it is not that desirable. I find the option of fast injects/chronos to be much more useful than the save cammera ones though.
Hope it helped some of you.
cheers
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EPT
