Question about hotkeys

IMoperator

4476 Posts

November 12 2011 10:23 GMT

Whenever I see pros play or hear discussions about hotkeys, I notice that they all have relatively the same ones. 1 2 3 are all army and then 4/5 is CC/Nexus/Hatches and then production buildings are the others. I am just wondering what is the point of putting your army on the first 3 keys? I find that armies aren't very "keyboard heavy" compared to production.
Here's the hotkeys I use:
1 - rax
2 - cc
3 - factories (early game I use this for scout)
4 - starport
5-0 army

I know that hotkeys are a comfort thing, but what's the logic behind putting your army on the left hand side when all you really need to press is a?

Dalguno

United States2446 Posts

November 12 2011 10:29 GMT

You can keep all army production buildings on one hotkey, and tab through each to make units. Barracks+tab goes to factory, etc.

Army is usually on the first 4(ish) because it generally works best on the hand, for most people. If you can stretch 5-0 for it, that's awesome.

Kyhol

Canada2574 Posts

November 12 2011 10:53 GMT

5a6a7a8a9a0a
1a2a3a
4ddaaaaaaaaa 1ddddaaaaa

To an extent it's about comfort . In general it's about organisation while maximizing efficiency. Simply, you need to press keys fast. So what is faster? 1a2a3a or 5a6a7a8a9a. A reasonable answer would be neither. It's about what you practice and the amount of time you spend pressing set hotkeys. You could have the most disorganized hotkeys in SC2 and still be a beast because you simply practiced them enough to have your hands move at an optimal speed.

I personally like to keep them very basic and organized, that way I can easily be able to locate the keys all game long in tense situations. I have practiced my keys so often that I could play blindfolded and maintain the same apm, I feel comfortable in doing so. The comfort was developed through practice.

Basically find the most efficient hotkeys and practice your ass off with them, or stick to a bad set group of hotkeys but master them. Either way, it's about the speed at which you can hit them not the placement.

My hotkeys
1 2 3 army 4567 buildings 89 still finding out 0 CC
easy to locate, hard to master.

Kyhol

Canada2574 Posts

November 12 2011 11:13 GMT

"I find that armies aren't very "keyboard heavy" compared to production. "
I can press 1a2a3a in less than 1 second, so think about it like this. 1a2a3a( 1-2 second) and my army has been moved, from there I keep scrolling through my hotkeys while making sure I have my money managed to the proper hotkeys, 4ddddaa(1-2 seconds) 5sss ( 1-2 second ) 6ddvv ( 1-2 second ).
In the span of time I just calculated it took, at worst, 8 seconds to push 21 keyboard hotkeys and then include the respective clicks from the mouse clicks, which would be 6. In 8 seconds you have hit 27 individual motions.

Can you see where it could get confusing if half your shit was on the other side of the keyboard? Gotta be fast bra

achristes

Norway653 Posts

November 12 2011 16:41 GMT

I'm zerg so I don't know if my keys really matter to you but I use;
1-3 Army
4 Hatcheries
5 Queens
6 Evo's
7-0 Can't really reach them so they are rarely used

If I play terran (I suck at terran BTW) I use;
1-3 Army
4 CC/OC/PF
5 Rax
6 Fac
7 Port
8-0 Generally nothing ^^

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