Errors in the Starcraft 2 Hotkey System

SixtusTheFifth

New Zealand170 Posts

April 28 2013 04:32 GMT

Errors in the Starcraft 2 Hotkey System

This post comes from all my experiences dealing with hotkeys for TheCore. It began as a cathartic exercise, simply venting my frustrations into a document. Every hidden key, every conflict test that doesn’t work, every non-conflict that is detected, every button that I needed to change but couldn’t get to without delving into the Starcraft 2 editor.

From the table of contents below you can see I have categorised the errors and given examples. From there I look at the Terran production buildings in WoL and HotS and there’s even a quiz to test your new knowledge.

And then the ending changed. While writing what was not intended to be anything more than an exercise in mockery, I accidently discovered the fix that exists within the Starcraft 2 editor for a large number of hotkey errors. It is this section, Chapter 4, that will be of the most interest to makers of custom maps.

Contents

1.1

2.1

2.2

Types of Errors

I have defined five common errors in the Starcraft 2 custom hotkey system.

The game incorrectly considers keys to conflict, or incorrectly allows conflicts to occur.

Failure to rebind related keys where one is changed. An example of inheritance working correctly is with weapon and armor upgrades. Levels 1, 2 and 3 are actually considered three different upgrades, only one of which the front end allows you to change. However, levels 2 and 3 inherit changes made to level 1 so there is no issue.

The front end is simply missing an ability. Usually the only workaround is to manually edit the SC2Hotkeys file. This error is the source of many hidden conflicts.

The opposite of above. The front end contains a key but it is not used in game. It is also the opposite in behaviour since the front end will now complain about a conflict that doesn’t exist, rather than ignore one which does.

A clear pattern is broken.

Icing

Those are the five common errors. However they don’t quite cover everything. At certain points a kind of anti-synergy develops a super-error, greater than the sum of its parts. Or just think of this as a bonus point for screwing something up so badly it demands a special mention.

Examples

There are four errors on the Mercenary Compound.

Select Builder incorrectly conflicts with unit production. If the Mercenary Compound is still being built then no units can be produced.
Halt Construction conflicts with unit production.

War Pig. Because this key is missing no conflict check is performed so another unit can be made to conflict with the hardcoded default value. This is an example of a hidden conflict.

Reaper Speed.

There are five errors on the Engineering Bay.

Select Builder conflicts with upgrades.
Halt Construction conflicts with upgrades.

When Ultra-Capacitors are chosen in the campaign the weapons upgrade does not inherit the custom key.
When Vanadium Plating is chosen in the campaign the armor upgrade does not inherit the custom key⁽¹⁾.

As mentioned earlier Level 2 and 3 weapons and armor are considered separate upgrades yet they correctly inherit a custom key.

Errors in Action

Let’s look at some more Terran buildings and see how many errors we can find. The following should give you a good idea on how to check for mistakes, there will be a quiz at the end.

There are seven errors on the Armory.

Select Builder conflicts with upgrades.
Halt Construction conflicts with upgrades.

When Ultra-Capacitors or Vanadium Plating are chosen in the campaign the vehicle and ship weapons and armor upgrades do not inherit the custom key.

Level 2 and 3 weapons and armor are also considered separate upgrades yet they correctly inherit a custom key.

There are eight errors on the Barracks.

Select Builder conflicts with unit production.
Build Tech Reactor conflicts with Tech Lab or Reactor when it is a campaign replacement.

Halt Construction.
Build Tech Reactor on flying Barracks.
Build Spectre.

Build TechReactorAI. When you do change the Tech Reactor key from ‘Z’ to something else you will find that nothing changes in game. The front end allows you to change the key for the TechReactorAI, an addon that exists only in the picture above. Playing the actual game the addon is called the Tech Reactor - a unit you can’t get to through the front.

Build Tech Reactor.

Icing

Tech Reactor. You can’t get to the key through the front, you think that you can but you can’t set it to the same key as the addons it replaces, but if you can find the correct addon in the map editor you can set the key as you wish without any conflict.

There are six errors on the Factory.

Select Builder conflicts with unit production.
Build Tech Reactor conflicts with Tech Lab or Reactor when it is a campaign replacement.

Halt Construction.
Build Tech Reactor on flying Factory.

Build Tech Reactor AI.

Build Tech Reactor.

There are seven errors on the Starport.

Select Builder conflicts with unit production.
Build Tech Reactor conflicts with Tech Lab or Reactor when it is a campaign replacement.

Build Science Vessel.
Halt Construction.
Build Tech Reactor on flying Starport.

Build Tech Reactor AI.

Build Tech Reactor.

A Quick Look at HotS

So far we have looked at a few Terran buildings and found they produce almost as many errors as units or upgrades. Let’s see what has changed three years later.

There are fifteen errors on the Barracks (HotS).

Spectre conflicts with Ghost.

Science Vessel has been entered without conflicting with the Raven.
Psi-Emitter still missing from SCV.

Every single mercenary unit conflicts with the regular version.

Halt Construction.
Select Builder.
Build Tech Reactor on flying Barracks.

Build TechReactorAI.

Build TechReactor.

Icing

We couldn’t change the Spectre’s key for years, then when we can change the key it’s in HotS where we don’t use them, but it conflicts with the Ghost, yet in WoL where we do use them there is no conflict, but we can’t get to the key. To add insult to injury the Science Vessel was corrected, albeit in HotS where you don’t use it, but by a different guy at Blizzard who clearly isn’t on speaking terms with the genius who was assigned the Spectre fix. Furthermore, whoever assigned the programmers these fixes didn’t first find all the missing keys so the problem still exists for other units.
I’m not sure how many custom games bother with the Merc Compound. And why would they? Even HotS doesn’t. Much better then to have mercenaries come from a primary structure. So Blizzard have made a whole extra command card and even a button to get to it... and then added all the regular units creating unnecessary conflicts. If this had not been done then mapmakers could use the HotS mod and players could build mercs without learning any extra keys. Either Blizzard felt that would be too easy or custom maps were not considered a factor.

There are eleven errors on the Factory (HotS).

Every single mercenary unit conflicts with the regular version.

Halt Construction.
Build Tech Reactor on flying Factory.
Mercenary Thor

Build TechReactorAI.

Build TechReactor.

If the Diamondback has a mercenary version it is missing. If it doesn’t then the Diamondback shouldn’t be there at all. If a mercenary version is added later the Diamondback should still be removed along with the other regular units.
This time the separate command card is for campaign units. The Siege Tank is missing but if the card is for units unique to the campaign then that is correct and the Hellion and Thor shouldn’t be there⁽²⁾.
With that said the Warhound should be on the campaign card and not with Hellion and Siege Tank where the Thor is missing and possibly the Widowmine and Hellbat. I can’t tell how these cards were, for want of a better word, designed, so rather than list all the extra and missing keys I will count this all as one great big inconsistent mess.

There are twelve errors on the Starport (HotS).

The Starport is the only Terran production building which has come through with only the original command card errors. There were of course errors added with HotS, but they are isolated to the HotS command cards and nothing more was broken in WoL. In the context of the Barracks and Factory that counts as an achievement.

Now that you have had time to get your head around that concept I can tell you that Blizzard fixed one error from WoL. You can now get to the Science Vessel key. I could have included this in the above but I wanted to make a special point of congratulating Blizzard on fixing one key without breaking anything else. Obviously the A Team was working that day. As previously mentioned the B Team was assigned the Spectre.

Every single mercenary unit conflicts with the regular version.

The Starport comes close to isolating units unique to the campaign but the Battlecruiser shouldn’t be there.

If the Wraith has a mercenary version it is missing. If it doesn’t then the Wraith shouldn’t be there at all. If a mercenary version is added later the Wraith should still be removed along with the other regular units.

With the Wraith changed to ‘W’ in HotS you might be tempted to change the WoL key, which is set to ‘A’. Doing so would unbind Warp-In. The game doesn’t see any difference between global keys for Protoss and Terran, a key is either global or it isn’t. To work around this Blizzard have set Warp In to ‘Shift-W’ to avoid a conflict; but only in the HotS campaign, on ladder Warp In is still on ‘W’. This means the Blizzard layouts can have keys change between modes but custom layouts can’t.

As you can see HotS brought a lot of changes to the hotkey system. More errors were added, keys that previously worked if you could get to them in the file were broken, and the addition of mercenaries has future-fracked (that’s the opposite of future-proofed) unit production for makers of custom games. Most of these errors could be circumvented without Blizzard involvement if only the custom file could force different modes to read different keys, but only the Blizzard layouts do that.

Here is a sample of Terran units and then there will be a quiz on the Zerg.

T Boned

There are five errors on the SCV.

Command Center with Orbital Relay does not inherit the key for the Command Center.
Supply Drop does not inherit the command for the Supply Depot
Automatic Refinery does not inherit the key for the Refinery.
Fortified Bunker does not inherit the key for the Bunker.

Psi Disruptor.

There are five errors on the Spectre.

If you tick Allow Toggle Conflicts then Hold Fire and Weapons Free still conflict and can’t share a hotkey.

Everything works fine for the Ghost.

Decloak. This may seem odd since it is right there in the picture. But the above shows the old command card. The HotS command card does not have Decloak. To get to Decloak you have to go to the campaign Banshee or the multiplayer Ghost. This now allows a conflict between Decloak and the other Spectre abilities.

It is now possible to create conflicts with Decloak.

Icing

Fixing something that wasn’t broken and breaking something else.

There are two errors on the Thor.

Immortality Protocol. Again, it’s right there in the picture, how is this key missing? The picture shows the key for Thor Wreckage which has the Immortality Protocol ability and is correctly separate from the Thor’s command card. However the Thor itself also has a Immortality Protocol button hardcoded to ‘I’ which cannot be reached through the front. This creates a hidden conflict if 330mm Barrage Cannon is set to ‘I’, which right handed layouts use in TheCore.

330mm Barrage Cannon does not inherit 250mm key.

Zerg Quiz

As a small distraction for those of you now wishing to play along I have created this section so you too can marvel at the level of indifference Blizzard will display towards something they truly, truly, truly do not care about.

It is outside the scope of this blog to give a tutorial on the map editor so only the Swarm Host needs that level of analysis. Most of the errors can be found simply by changing keys in the front and seeing if they come through in game. Remember to check upgrades! Answers are given in the next post.

How many errors can you find on Kerrigan?

How many errors can you find on the Larva (HotS)?

There is one error on the Swarm Host Creeper Strain. Hint: It will be very time consuming to find this without the editor.

The Curious Case of Blizzfixeda Button

While dealing with each and every single one of the hassles that must be overcome customising hotkeys I started to wonder if someone at Blizzard was being paid to sabotage the entire system. However, while writing this I delved back into Left2Die and found what to me was a different game. I also discovered the fix to most of the errors above and consequently a different ending to this blog.

I made my first contribution⁽³⁾ to TheCore adding the campaign hotkeys along with Left2Die. None of the Left2Die abilities were accessible through the front, and each had to be entered manually in the hotkey file twice since Tech Reactor upgrades did not inherit from Tech Lab upgrades. Leading to dozens of lines in TheCore like this:

ResearchG4Charge/BarracksTechLab=K
ResearchG4Charge/BarracksTechReactor=K
ResearchRegenerativeBioSteel/FactoryTechLab=Apostrophe
ResearchRegenerativeBioSteel/FactoryTechReactor=Apostrophe

At some point (I have not yet found the patch notes) two major changes were made. The keys were made available through the front and someone set them to inherit correctly. It’s the second part that is most impressive.
Only the keys for upgrades on the Tech Lab are accessible but when you upgrade to Tech Reactors the keys inherit correctly. These two fixes make 21 previously hidden keys accessible. There are still missing keys, Stim on the Firebat Merc⁽⁴⁾ and all the Science Facility upgrades, but 21 keys is a step in the right direction.

Now when I say ‘most impressive’ - I mean impressive on whatever scale Blizzard’s performance reviews are based. I do not mean impressive in any classical or dictionary sense of the word which might lead you to be impressed.

I was curious about how the above voodoo was performed, especially since it hasn’t been for so many other units where the need is more dire. About 15 minutes of poking around in the data editor, comparing fields on buttons which inherited to ones that didn’t, lead me to a fix for the problem. I do hope there is a fan-frackin-tastic reason why Blizzard can’t do it. Actually we know for a fact they can do it. Make that a reason they don’t.

The easiest way to go through the fix for yourself is on the Zergling.

Open the ZEvolutionZerglingMap and open the Data module.
Go to the Larva unit.
Go to the Zergling button.

It has a Hotkey alias which can be inherited by other buttons.

You can either right click Morph to Zergling and View Linked button, or edit the two Zergling strains underneath.
Change both of their hotkey aliases to Morph to Zergling.

Test the Document.
Get to the part where you have a base for the Swarmlings.
Make a change to the standard Zergling.

The change is inherited by the Swarmling.
Marvel at this⁽⁵⁾ and remember to Not Save changes.

Summary

There are dozens more campaign errors which must be navigated when customising your hotkeys. In fact when fixing all of these errors for TheCore I spent more time in the data editor than in game.

In the lead up to HotS I knew I would have my work cut out for me, but I did not think that the front end would be worse than before. For LotV it would be a profound improvement if in three years time Blizzard are as bad at this as they were three years ago.

And for the most part it is utterly unnecessary. All the threads on BNet complaining about custom keys that can’t be set, a month of waiting for nothing to change, and all that is needed is for someone to apply the fix that already exists in the editor.

Footnotes

       1. This is the smallest count of errors since by using inheritance all the Engineering Bay problems would be fixed. Technically there are another six errors I could have counted for a total of eleven. Level 1, 2 and 3 of Ultra-Capacitors and Vanadium Plating are also missing keys allowing hidden conflicts. Swapping the Weapons and Hi-Sec keys will work in the front, but the Ultra-Capacitors key is missing and doesn’t inherit so the custom key will be ignored and you will have a conflict.

       2. Regarding all the new HotS command cards I have counted errors only where the goal was not achieved, not the goal itself, i.e the attempt to isolate units unique to the campaign was not achieved, but if it had been the goal itself was still absolutely stupid. All that happens now is that some campaign units can be assigned the same key as ladder units, which will unbind if you go into WoL or Left2Die.

       3. This is the post here. At the end I asked if anyone with access to the HotS Beta forums could ask the Blizzard Devs if they had improved campaign hotkeys. Somewhere in that chain of events someone said “No”.

       4. Another great oversight. Stim was already a shared ability used by the Marine and Marauder. Deftly avoiding all the convenience that would have been caused by using that button Blizzard created a new Stim ability for Left2Die and then made it inaccessible. Then made it accessible, but not for all units.

       5. I have no idea if this breaks something else. Perhaps it’s part of the fan-frackin-tastic reason Blizzard won’t do it. Research on this Hotkey Alias proved fruitless so I just had to make change and see what happened. The only thing I could find on SC2Mapster threads and wiki is they don’t know what this field does. If anyone has an account there please feel free to tell them, I can’t be bothered making an account for one post.

SixtusTheFifth

New Zealand170 Posts

April 28 2013 04:32 GMT

Update: May 8th.

Patch 2.08 contained the line:

Fixed many keyboard layout and hotkey issues across all languages.

...which meant nothing in the context of what I have written for this blog. In fact the updated known issues still says:

Kerrigan's ability hotkeys cannot be rebound to a custom profile.
We have identified the cause of this issue and should have a fix applied in a future update.

...which is what it has said since the game was released. Speaking of Kerrigan here are the answers to the quiz.

There are nineteen errors on Kerrigan.

+ Show Spoiler +

Kerrigan in Back in the Saddle does not inherit Kinetic Blast key.
Kerrigan in Back in the Saddle does not inherit Crushing Grip key.

Psionic Shift.
Leaping Strike.
Mend.
Spawn Banelings.
Apocalypse.
Drop Pods.

Kinetic Blast on Burrowed Kerrigan.
Crushing Grip on Burrowed Kerrigan.
Wild Mutation on Burrowed Kerrigan.
Spawn Leviathan on Burrowed Kerrigan.

Psionic Shift on Burrowed Kerrigan.
Leaping Strike on Burrowed Kerrigan.
Mend on Burrowed Kerrigan.
Spawn Banelings on Burrowed Kerrigan.
Apocalypse on Burrowed Kerrigan.
Drop Pods on Burrowed Kerrigan.

No other unit in the game keeps unused abilities on the burrowed card.

There are twelve errors on the Larva (HotS).

+ Show Spoiler +

Splitterling Strain does not inherit Zergling key.
Raptor Strain does not inherit Zergling key.
Corpser Strain does not inherit Roach key.
Vile Strain does not inherit Roach key.
Lurker Strain does not inherit Hydralisk key.
Impaler Strain does not inherit Hydralisk key.
Noxious Strain does not inherit Ultralisk key.
Torrasque Strain does not inherit Ultralisk key.
Carrion Strain does not inherit Swarm Host key.
Creeper Strain does not inherit Swarm Host key.
Brood Lord Strain does not inherit Mutalisk key.
Viper Strain does not inherit Mutalisk key.

There is one error on the Swarm Host Creeper Strain.

+ Show Spoiler +

Rapid Incubation. This mutation is hardcoded to ‘A’ causing a hidden conflict. Burrow will not work if set to ‘A’, Deep Tunnel and Attack still will.

eneyeseekay

239 Posts

April 28 2013 05:11 GMT

When trying to configure my own campaign hotkeys I found that the merc-related command cards became so rough that I had to create bindings I didn't want to include, but was essentially forced to. Setting up hotkeys for both WoL and HotS proved to be pretty frustrating.

It's great that you took time to create this thread, thanks a lot Sixtus! This thread really needs as much exposure as it can get.

decemberscalm

United States1353 Posts

April 28 2013 05:19 GMT

Nice research.

Considering hot keys are not required in the slightest to beat everything on the highest difficulty in HOTS I'm not surprised they didn't bother.

They screwed custom mappers on campaign dependencies. It takes a lot of work to simply use campaign models with default HOTS.

I'm still waiting on a fix for player numbers corresponding to the lobby. Instead we've got absolutely berserk arrangements and detailed in game work-around's for it.

Iyerbeth

England2410 Posts

April 28 2013 08:01 GMT

That's an impressive post, I never realised there were so many problems. I think it's dissapointing this is a blog post though, less people will see it than should.

ArcticRaven

France1406 Posts

April 28 2013 09:18 GMT

Maybe it could be featured. ? That's some impressive (as in, i'm impressed

) work, and Blizzard's utter disregard for custom mappers is somewhat scary.

DusTerr

2520 Posts

April 28 2013 09:25 GMT

Yeah, custom hotkeys in the campaign were awful. IIRC Kerrigan's custom hotkeys don't apply until you're actually in the "Zerg" part of the story.

Good post and I hope these things get looked at!

FFGenerations

7088 Posts

April 28 2013 12:54 GMT

sick post

docvoc

United States5491 Posts

April 28 2013 14:27 GMT

This should seriously be spotlighted, this is a great post.

soon.Cloak

United States983 Posts

April 28 2013 19:49 GMT

#10

Either should be spotlighted or moved out of blogs; this post is too good for that.

SixtusTheFifth

New Zealand170 Posts

April 29 2013 01:00 GMT

#11

On April 28 2013 17:01 Iyerbeth wrote:
That's an impressive post, I never realised there were so many problems. I think it's dissapointing this is a blog post though, less people will see it than should.

On April 29 2013 04:49 soon.Cloak wrote:
Either should be spotlighted or moved out of blogs; this post is too good for that.

Hmm, I'll have to chalk this one up to experience. I guess I was in a blog mindset since the original draft was pretty much pure frustration. Then when I ended up rewriting the ending it never occurred to me it was no longer a blog. A lesson in tunnel vision I suppose.

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