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Active: 1573 users

Changing Hotkey setups is a bitch, my man

Blogs > Arisen
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Arisen
Profile Blog Joined October 2010
United States2382 Posts
November 13 2011 09:20 GMT
#1
So, I've been looking into more counter heavy play in ZvX and the main problem I see, is that so often a zerg is so grouped up because all his hatches are on one hotkey, so his rallies are often set to the same place all midgame, so the army has to split up from one point. I've watched a few Korean players reps that have all their hatches set to different hotkeys and the rallies are naturally split up, which makes counterattacking SOOO good. A terran or protoss would be putting pressure on the zerg natural and he would run the units from his 3rd/4th's natural to the Protoss natural or third or whatever and do a really nice backstab while using what he had at home to defend.

Obviously you can do this with the 1 hatch hotkey setup too, but I think this hotkey setup works so well because you can direct what gets produced where, which I'm not seeing a ton of in SC2. I'm seeing an infestor getting produced at a third with a few roach/ling or whatever and that makes a great flank or backstab, as well as being great for reducing drone transfer time in the mid/lategame when you're trying to either populate your third while there's some phoenix flying around, or just lategame where you need to populate a base real fast and have drones dragging their asses from your main to your 4th or 5th or whatever.


So I said to myself, "time to change!". Let me tell you something, changing is a bitch, my man, it's a real bitch. I never would have thought it but it's so hard to untrain yourself from hitting 4 whenever you want to make something and instead of the one 4sdddddddddd constantly hitting 4sd5sd6sd7sd8sd.... I know that it's not that hard, but old habits die hard. I'm starting to come around early game and I'm not dying to the standard midgame push anymore (lol) becuase I'm like 10 drones behind and late with all my stuff, but in latergame it's still so hard to get used to this new hotkey setup when you're muta harassing or trying to setup a flank and macro, etc. It's a real bitch to learn, but it's so fun. I can't wait till I have it down, I can already feel my play getting stronger and my hands getting a bit faster (though you can't tell from the ingame apm screen because everyone's reads like 80ish anyway, lol). I think the payoff is goign to be great and might push me farther in my masters division, so here's hoping ^^.

So just throwing this out there, fellow zergs, this hotkey setup is so good if you can ever get used to it XD. I hope people try it out, I think this heavy counter play is going to catch on, man. We already see a bit of counter heavy zergs with rushed +1 melee in zvp, but I think a year from now if you aren't running small groups of ling/infestor (or whatever) all around terran's are going to be rolling zergs, and the same with protoss. I really am happy with how the game is developing and this higher action hotkey setup is so fun to learn and is just going to make the game a little more difficult, and I like that

Have a nice night TL

*
"If you're not angry, you're not paying attention"
LXR
Profile Joined June 2011
357 Posts
November 13 2011 09:31 GMT
#2
I remember when I changed from 1 command center 2 production to 4,5. Took me like a week of constant losses... but now i can micro much more easiliy
Navane
Profile Blog Joined February 2007
Netherlands2751 Posts
November 13 2011 10:37 GMT
#3
pro-tip; start using multiple hotkeys within single armies as well.
Arisen
Profile Blog Joined October 2010
United States2382 Posts
November 13 2011 10:42 GMT
#4
On November 13 2011 19:37 Navane wrote:
pro-tip; start using multiple hotkeys within single armies as well.


protip; everyone does that. lol.But seriously though, most people do split up units by range (stalkers/immortals on one key, zeals on another, or roach/hydra, roachling, etc), but don't split up their zerglings into two groups, etc. It's a lot easier with this setup as well as you naturally have 2 sets of units.
"If you're not angry, you're not paying attention"
Kyhol
Profile Blog Joined October 2008
Canada2575 Posts
November 13 2011 10:42 GMT
#5
I'm not sure if this relates but I'm just going to make a general statement. I'm about to leave so I won't have time to read. This should help though
If you want to change your hotkeys, don't change them and just go straight into playing. Get in a game by yourself and practice how to execute the keys properly. Do that for about an hour( I'd suggest more but who wants to play alone? A dedicated person, that's who), then go and try them out in ladder.
It'll help bra
Wishing you well.
Davideogame
Profile Joined September 2011
United States7 Posts
November 13 2011 10:53 GMT
#6
I had trouble for a while when I switched to the grid profile (like putting down reactors when I really wanted tech labs), but now that I know it I'm really glad I did. I recently swapped my control group buttons, so now I'm selecting my army when I really wanted my CC
Arisen
Profile Blog Joined October 2010
United States2382 Posts
November 13 2011 10:55 GMT
#7
On November 13 2011 19:42 Kyhol wrote:
I'm not sure if this relates but I'm just going to make a general statement. I'm about to leave so I won't have time to read. This should help though
If you want to change your hotkeys, don't change them and just go straight into playing. Get in a game by yourself and practice how to execute the keys properly. Do that for about an hour( I'd suggest more but who wants to play alone? A dedicated person, that's who), then go and try them out in ladder.
It'll help bra



Yeah, I've been playig with the new setup for about a week so far. It's going to feel awkward for a long time, regaurdless, I think. I just used my alt account I use for playing offrace because I didn't care about the ladder rank. Good advice htough.
"If you're not angry, you're not paying attention"
Garnet
Profile Blog Joined February 2006
Vietnam9034 Posts
November 13 2011 13:18 GMT
#8
I tried 4 for CC (instead of 3) for a few days and gave up. Maybe when I become better (currently Plat) I'll use more hotkeys.
zappa372
Profile Blog Joined June 2010
Chile365 Posts
November 13 2011 18:13 GMT
#9
Try this.
Put all your hatches in a hotkey, and clone your rally points.
If you want to produce a specific unit, go to the hatch with the f keys.

The macro in broodwar was pretty much like you're doing it, but in broodwar we had all larvae morphing with just one press of a key. Imagine you have to remax on infestor ling and you have 50 larvae on 5 hatches, that would be madness.

EE HAN TIMING!
GMarshal
Profile Blog Joined March 2010
United States22154 Posts
November 13 2011 18:33 GMT
#10
On November 13 2011 22:18 Garnet wrote:
I tried 4 for CC (instead of 3) for a few days and gave up. Maybe when I become better (currently Plat) I'll use more hotkeys.

Your logic is backwards, you don't magically become better then use more hotkeys, you use more hotkeys and become better ^_^

@the OP, yes, changing hotkeys is a bitch, I remember when I went from the default hotkeys to grid, man did that take some getting used to
Moderator
Guamshin
Profile Joined January 2011
Netherlands295 Posts
November 20 2011 18:40 GMT
#11
Oh that setup is nice, i know several players who do that, NEXNaya, DRG, Aristeo. Its quite hard to get used to but it definitly makes you a better player if you get used to it, changing rally points is so much easier by using this.
Weeeee
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