I've never liked grid, more so because I use my ring finger to hit Q. Something brilliant hit me when I was going to re-hotkey Tanks to R. F isn't used but once. Your strongest finger on homerow is only used when you want your Ghost to be a puss and not fire. OH EM GEE what wasted letter of the alphabet! You have five digits on each hand, 4 rest on letters, 1 doesn't. Why do you only use those 4 digits on letters 95% of the time? The last digit says YAY you used me! when you type 'gl hf'.
The Plan
Create a new hotkey lay-out flowing and minimizing hand movement while still being reminiscent of Standard. A emphasis would be on using the stronger fingers (index,middle,ring,thumb) 90-95% of the time. I would still like to keep:
- 3 - Factories
4 - Command Centers
5 - Barracks
6 - Starports
Everything else is up for grabs. I took some time and wrote down each Unique action available for Terran.
Units
ALL - Move,Stop,Hold position,Patrol,Attack
Scv - Repair,Gather,Return Cargo,Build advanced,Build basic,Halt
MULE - Repair,Gather,Return Cargo
Marine - Stimpack
Marauder - Stimpack
Reaper -
Ghost - Nuke,Hold fire,Weapons free,Snipe,EMP,Cloak,Decloak,Cancel
Hellion -
Siege Tank - Siege mode,Tank mode
Thor - 250mm Strike cannons,Cancel
Viking - Fighter mode, Assault mode
Medivac - Heal,Load,Unload
Raven - Build auto-turret,Build Point Defense Drone,Seeker missle
Banshee - Cloak,Uncloak
Battlecruiser - Yamato Cannon
Structures
ALL - Cancel (except auto-turret)
Command Center - Build SCV,Orbital Command,Planetary Fortress,Select builder,Set Rally Point,Load,Unload all,Lift off
- Load,Unload all, Land
Orbital Command - Build SCV,Set Rally Point,Calldown: MULE, Calldown:Extra Supply,Scanner Sweep,Lift Off
- Land
Planetary Fortress - Stop,Attack,Set Rally Point,Load,Unload all
Refinery - Select worker,Halt
Supply Depot - Select worker,Lower,Halt
Barracks - Train Marine,Train Marauder,Train Reaper,Train Ghost,Select worker, Set rally point,Build Tech lab,Build Reactor,Lift
- Build Tech lab,Build reactor,Land
Enginerring Bay - Upgrade Weapons level 1(2)[3],Upgrade Armor level 1(2)[3],Research Hi-Sec Auto Tracking,Research Neosteel Frame,Upgrade Stucture Armor,Select worker,Halt
Bunker - Stop,Attack,Stimpack,Select worker,Set Rally Point,Load,Unload all,Salvage
Missle Turret - Stop,Attack,Select worker,Halt
Sensor Tower - Select worker,Halt
Ghost Academy - Research Personal Cloaking,Research Moebius Reactor,Select worker,Arm Silo with Nuke,Halt
Factory - Build hellion,Build Siege Tank,Build Thor,Select worker,Set rally point,Build Tech Lab,Build Reactor,Lift Off
-Build Tech lab,Build Reactor,Land
Armory - Research Vehicle Weapon level 1(2)[3],Research Vehicle Armor Level 1(2)[3],Research Ship weapons level 1(2)[3],Research ship armor level 1(2)[3],Select worker,Halt
Starport - Build Viking,Build Medivac,Build Raven,Build Banshee,Build Battlecruiser,Select worker,Set rally point,Build tech lab,Build reactor,Lift Off
- Build Tech lab,Build Reactor,Land
Fusion Core - Research weapons refit,Research Behemoth Reactor
Auto Turret - Stop,Attack
Add-on's
Tech lab
-Barracks - Research combat shields,Research stimpack,Research concussive shells,Research nitro packs
-Factory - Research Infernal Pre-ignitor,Research Siege Tech,Research 250mm Strike Cannons
-Starport - Research Caducues Reactor,Research Durable Materials,Research Seeker Missle,Research Corvid Reactor,Research Cloaking field
-general -
Reactor
-Baracks -
-Factory -
-Starport -
-general -
As you can see, its very extensive and initially I was scared away. 1a2a. The allure of hitting a chain of commands like wfef then shift+[space] and having a marine/tank line set up was too much. I was dragged back into insanity, theorycrafting every combination of keystrokes to get work done as efficiently as possible. This brings me to now, where I'm starting from basically scratch and within the next week or two I will find tranquility. Time to set off for this adventure.