• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 03:30
CEST 09:30
KST 16:30
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
Classic Games #3: Rogue vs Serral at BlizzCon6[ASL20] Ro16 Preview Pt1: Ascent10Maestros of the Game: Week 1/Play-in Preview12[ASL20] Ro24 Preview Pt2: Take-Off7[ASL20] Ro24 Preview Pt1: Runway13
Community News
Weekly Cups (Sept 1-7): MaxPax rebounds & Clem saga continues22LiuLi Cup - September 2025 Tournaments3Weekly Cups (August 25-31): Clem's Last Straw?39Weekly Cups (Aug 18-24): herO dethrones MaxPax6Maestros of The Game—$20k event w/ live finals in Paris76
StarCraft 2
General
Classic Games #3: Rogue vs Serral at BlizzCon #1: Maru - Greatest Players of All Time Team Liquid Map Contest #21 - Presented by Monster Energy [G] How to watch Korean progamer Streams. Weekly Cups (Sept 1-7): MaxPax rebounds & Clem saga continues
Tourneys
LiuLi Cup - September 2025 Tournaments Maestros of The Game—$20k event w/ live finals in Paris WardiTV Mondays Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament RSL: Revival, a new crowdfunded tournament series
Strategy
Custom Maps
External Content
Mutation # 490 Masters of Midnight Mutation # 489 Bannable Offense Mutation # 488 What Goes Around Mutation # 487 Think Fast
Brood War
General
alas... i aint gon' lie to u bruh... BW General Discussion [ASL20] Ro16 Preview Pt1: Ascent BGH Auto Balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/ The Korean Terminology Thread
Tourneys
[ASL20] Ro16 Group B [ASL20] Ro16 Group A [Megathread] Daily Proleagues Is there English video for group selection for ASL
Strategy
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Muta micro map competition Fighting Spirit mining rates [G] Mineral Boosting
Other Games
General Games
Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread General RTS Discussion Thread Iron Harvest: 1920+ Nintendo Switch Thread Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne
Dota 2
Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion
League of Legends
Heroes of the Storm
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Heroes of StarCraft mini-set
TL Mafia
TL Mafia Community Thread
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine Russo-Ukrainian War Thread The Games Industry And ATVI UK Politics Mega-thread
Fan Clubs
The Happy Fan Club!
Media & Entertainment
[Manga] One Piece Anime Discussion Thread Movie Discussion! [\m/] Heavy Metal Thread
Sports
2024 - 2026 Football Thread Formula 1 Discussion MLB/Baseball 2023 TeamLiquid Health and Fitness Initiative For 2023
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Linksys AE2500 USB WIFI keeps disconnecting Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread High temperatures on bridge(s)
TL Community
BarCraft in Tokyo Japan for ASL Season5 Final The Automated Ban List
Blogs
Collective Intelligence: Tea…
TrAiDoS
A very expensive lesson on ma…
Garnet
hello world
radishsoup
Lemme tell you a thing o…
JoinTheRain
RTS Design in Hypercoven
a11
Evil Gacha Games and the…
ffswowsucks
INDEPENDIENTE LA CTM
XenOsky
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 1439 users

are hotkeys really that great? - Page 2

Forum Index > BW General
Post a Reply
Prev 1 2 3 4 5 6 Next All
Pob
Profile Joined February 2004
880 Posts
April 14 2004 19:55 GMT
#21
is this like a quest to see who can get flamed the most?? hautamaki - enlighten...
FreeZEternal
Profile Joined January 2003
Korea (South)3396 Posts
April 14 2004 20:23 GMT
#22
hotkeys are very important -_-;
Waxangel
Profile Blog Joined September 2002
United States33426 Posts
April 14 2004 20:34 GMT
#23
On April 15 2004 03:29 Hautamaki wrote:
I can click my minimap to go to my gates and select them and press the keyboard shortcut, and then press space bar to go back to the fight, than you can press 1-z 2-d 3-z 4-k etc, I guarantee it.


And Wax, when you call me slow, are you referring to my low apm? APM means nothing, what matters is how quickly you accomplish tasks. I accomplish the same number of tasks as you, I just use fewer clicks because I'm not wasting time setting hotkeys and cycling through them. Personally I'd say I'm faster than you, despite having lower apm. I think the pvp games that we play, where I consistantly outharass you, bear me out on that score.


you can't guarantee that, that wasn't the wisest thing to say -_-

I produce by clicking on gates too ;p
AdministratorHey HP can you redo everything youve ever done because i have a small complaint?
koehli
Profile Joined January 2004
Germany350 Posts
April 14 2004 20:44 GMT
#24
I somehow got the feeling, if we'd take 1000 random players from bnet (USWest, European or Asian Server) Hautamaki would have problems to make it into the Top 990 x_O
You go to war with the Army you have, not the Army you might want or wish to have at a later time.
Socke
Profile Joined November 2002
Germany451 Posts
April 14 2004 20:45 GMT
#25
hotkeys plz, gives you much more control
EAGER-beaver
Profile Joined March 2004
Canada2799 Posts
April 14 2004 20:48 GMT
#26
Hotkeys are like republicans; they're a necassary evil to keep the hippies at bay.
Simon and Garfunkel rock my face off
Yarertz
Profile Joined February 2003
Djibouti1891 Posts
April 14 2004 21:40 GMT
#27
Im terran user and i use hotkeys for most actions.
w/o it i would be TERRIBLE slow
StarCraft : 26.IX.2001 - 8.XII.2004 (1167 days) R.I.P [`]
Liquid`Drone
Profile Joined September 2002
Norway28682 Posts
April 14 2004 22:55 GMT
#28
they are innnnnnnnnnnnsaaaaaaaaaaaneeeeeeeeeeeeelllllllllyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy important

there's nothing that has made me improve as much as starting using hotkeys. it made a bigger impact than changing from trackball into a normal mouse. which is also incredibly significant.

when you're zealotrushing someone, if you don't have your gateways and nexus hotkeyed, you will either fuck up zealot micro every 20 seconds (which kills you), or you won't be producing probes/zealots. (which unless you kill him, kills you.)

maybe you just have really really really tiny hands or something. but personally I can do 0a with my left hand faster than I can mark 12 units with my mouse and press a. and 1a goes way faster than 0a.

honestly you probably haven't used them enough to realize how beneficial they are. mostly everyone who struggles with bad macro do so because they lack hotkeyed buildings. :/

that's what my tvz lacks too, but im not really fast enough to do it through hotkeys either in lategame. basically when you have to watch your units most of the time, you really really need to have the buildings hotkeyed, but if there's no action going on then it's not important.

Moderator
gravity
Profile Joined March 2004
Australia1912 Posts
Last Edited: 2004-04-14 23:12:22
April 14 2004 23:08 GMT
#29
I used to use hotkeys for units a lot more, but lately I'm more likely to just drag select. I've never used hotkeys for buildings much.

edit: I hotkey gates when rushing now, but not in mid-game.
FreeZEternal
Profile Joined January 2003
Korea (South)3396 Posts
April 14 2004 23:11 GMT
#30
I hotkey everything -_-;; even tech buildings while they are being built cuz I have to tech while microing,etc.For example while I'm harassing with goons to a terran I hotkey my citadel being built+_+so i can make my templar archive while microing and in exact time+_+;
hasuwar
Profile Joined April 2003
7365 Posts
April 14 2004 23:18 GMT
#31
My response to the original poster, not reading everyone elses.

You say clicking gates and hitting z is faster, and I agree, this is faster than some moron using 1z 2z 3z. I think that is the slowest possible way to macro, period.

However..this is how I macro: 1(click unit), 2(click unit). The same principle applies for me, that does for you. I keep my hand on my mouse, AND I keep my hand on my hotkey numbers, so I can c ontrol my units much faster than you could having to bring your hand back up from hitting Z. Not only that, but macroing with hotkeys allows you to quickly build more units in the heat of battle. You can click 123456 along with clicking on a zealot faster than light (the only down side is that sometimes if you do this too fast, it'll skip a gateway ) But it's worth it to macro and micro your units at the same time, never taking your eyes off the actual action.

Using hotkeys to control your units is a big thing for mobility. If you're facing 20 hydras, and you have 5 dragoons and 10 zealots, you'll want to run your zealots up and try to surround, right? That's easy if you've got your Zealots hotkeyed to 1. You just click 1, and send them around. However, if you're just selecting a bunch of units at once, you'll tell your dragoons to surround too, making them lose shoots, take more damage than normal, and possibly lose. With high templar drops, you usually want to do these in the heat of battle..so your opponet hears he's under attack from the front, and you storm him from the back. You want to control all your units, so you don't lose the front, and you storm him. It'd take too long to click back and fourth to do both at the same time, you might take some big damage (say he storms your front attack, while you're storming his probes..you lose 10 dragoons or something because you couldn't micro it at the same time) hotkeys help. Or if you're going to attack a zerg, and you wind up in a lurker field..you want to get your units out of there as fast as possible, and clicking and selecting just wouldn't be as fast as 1(right click), 2 (rightclick).

You said your fingers are too small for the F keys.. well, unless you're sporting half inch nubs(yes, NUBS, that spells nubs, not newbs, and anyone who says nub as newb is a fucking idiot) (now that that's said, I can move on) you can reach those. If you want to play fast and effecient, your hands should primarily be near your hotkeys..and your fkeys are right up from those, giving you access to both. I guess your hand might be somewhere else if you were macroing by pressing z or d way down oin the keyboard, but give 1click2click a shot and see how that works maybe.

and F keys..you gotta have those f'in f keys(AHAHHAHA, I MAKE FUNNEY) (I just woke up.) The only and best use for F keys for me, is used on your bases. Bases meaning, where you mine from. Using the MAYNARD TRANSFER, YES IT IS THE MAYNARD TRANSFER, DIE!, you can save a lot of probes, as well as make probes quickly and send newly made ones to mine. As I've explained before, f2, select, f3, right click. Faster than light, save you about 20 probes from tank drops. If you get later in the game with more than 3 expos, then after your first ones are massed up with probes, switch them to new bases so you can macro probes from there easily, by just hitting F2, click nexus, click probe (or hit P)

Fuck me... /end rant
Diablo3 ID: Exalted#1710 -------R.I.P. http://hasuwar.isgsa.org. Much love to Toptalent
Toff
Profile Joined December 2002
Norway309 Posts
April 14 2004 23:39 GMT
#32
On April 15 2004 04:11 jca wrote:
Show nested quote +
On April 15 2004 03:29 Hautamaki wrote:
APM means nothing, what matters is how quickly you accomplish tasks.


haha, that's a funny statement. It's like saying to a F1 driver that driving fast means nothing, what matters is winning the race. Any chance of a correlation between the two?

Please stop staying "APM means shit". APM is a measurement that contains some information about your ability to accomplish tasks quickly. That's all it is, but it's not "nothing".


I don't think you understood what he meant. As I understood it he said he was probably as fast or faster than wax even if he had lower APM. Is that a funny statement?
Frits
Profile Joined March 2003
11782 Posts
April 14 2004 23:47 GMT
#33
Thread creator... are you any good at this game? :-)

I just can't imagine someone being even average at this game without hotkeys :S.
Liquid`Drone
Profile Joined September 2002
Norway28682 Posts
April 14 2004 23:52 GMT
#34
it's definitely possible to be decent with toss without using hotkeys.

there are just some aspects you will be really really bad at. like zealot rushing. playing decent pvt without hotkeying anything is definitely possible. but anyone will benefit from using hotkeys.
Moderator
Surv[CIA]
Profile Joined December 2002
Belgium176 Posts
April 15 2004 00:06 GMT
#35
I think for toss the hotkeys for your gates mid game matter a lot. Also when u have a lot units u better htokey 1 2 3 or something to keep your units togheter. I agree with Drone hotkeying is needed for good macro.
http://teambelgium.isgsa.org
hasuwar
Profile Joined April 2003
7365 Posts
April 15 2004 00:16 GMT
#36
On April 15 2004 08:47 Frits wrote:
Thread creator... are you any good at this game? :-)

I just can't imagine someone being even average at this game without hotkeys :S.


I did it for the longest time on regular starcraft..I remember microwaring some guy, and he tried to explain to me what hotkeys were lol. I don't know how I actually started using them. I didn't learn about the shift click toadd to a group until like.. probably 7 months ago
Diablo3 ID: Exalted#1710 -------R.I.P. http://hasuwar.isgsa.org. Much love to Toptalent
jca
Profile Joined April 2003
France273 Posts
April 15 2004 00:18 GMT
#37
On April 15 2004 08:39 Toff wrote:
Show nested quote +
On April 15 2004 04:11 jca wrote:
On April 15 2004 03:29 Hautamaki wrote:
APM means nothing, what matters is how quickly you accomplish tasks.


haha, that's a funny statement. It's like saying to a F1 driver that driving fast means nothing, what matters is winning the race. Any chance of a correlation between the two?

Please stop staying "APM means shit". APM is a measurement that contains some information about your ability to accomplish tasks quickly. That's all it is, but it's not "nothing".


I don't think you understood what he meant. As I understood it he said he was probably as fast or faster than wax even if he had lower APM. Is that a funny statement?

I don't care what he meant, i care about what he wrote which is very clear: "APM means nothing, what matters is how quickly you accomplish tasks" and even you should be able to read it and realize it's absurd. If you don't, go back to school and learn.
http://www.bwchart.com
Probe (H)
Profile Joined March 2004
Netherlands448 Posts
April 15 2004 00:23 GMT
#38
I don't use hotkeys (much) except for units that is. Im zerg, ok I suck but I can beat some people ^_^
Probe (H)
Profile Joined March 2004
Netherlands448 Posts
April 15 2004 00:23 GMT
#39
but then again, i switch screen fast so my macro is most of times "pretty good".
STIMEY d okgm fish
Profile Joined August 2003
Canada6140 Posts
Last Edited: 2004-04-15 00:38:02
April 15 2004 00:28 GMT
#40
some pros dont hotkey units in some parts of the game, they only hotkey buildings so they can produce while they micro

I don't care what he meant, i care about what he wrote which is very clear: "APM means nothing, what matters is how quickly you accomplish tasks" and even you should be able to read it and realize it's absurd. If you don't, go back to school and learn.


the distinction between the speed of accomplishing tasks and APM is absurd? what the fuck? apm doesn't count minimap, f2 f3 f4, alt+c, it counts many things the same despite that some are much easier to do quickly (despite that one needs to do both of them) ... it's so easy to imagine an example where one raises their apm while the speed at which they accomplish tasks remains the same or is lowered, i won't even give you one.

It's far easier for me to click on my minimap than it is to use an Fkey to center on my procution centers. My fingers are too short to reach the Fkeys without moving my whole arm. To do it with my mouse I only need to flick my wrist.


just how short are your fingers? i think this may be more a question of form than of ability. put your pinky on ctrl. put your ring finger on shift. can you reach f2 with your middle finger? is it hard? do it until it isn't hard. problem solved probably. it's much worth it in the right situations. clicking the minimap accurately and quickly is, well.. slower than hitting "11" or f2 or even scrolling. it's a death hole that kills your pace because of the way the mini map works (lets you drag, so you have to almost stop to get it where you want it). if the minimap is faster than everything else, that is very weird. your minimap is godly or everything else is.. slower than the minimap?

as for producing from buildings you didn't hotkey, that is pretty good in most cases as long as you quickly get the buildings on your screen in the first place. a hotkey or a location seems fine, but if your minimap is better than those, then go for it i guess. i am wondering just how fast your minimap is though because it seems to me that one has to stop or drag for longer than it takes to press 11 or f2 in order to get an accurate spot on the minimap. combined with some scrolling it can get pretty quick but. mm. strange

hotkeying is the quickest way to go build a bunch of stuff while keeping your screen on your units, which is sometimes the thing to do. it's also the quickest way to center your screen on while selecting some units, which is the fastest reaction, or even to select and give them an order without centering the screen. at different points in the game either of these will be very powerful and not having them will cost you
Prev 1 2 3 4 5 6 Next All
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
Next event in 2h 30m
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
Nina 186
trigger 23
ProTech11
StarCraft: Brood War
GuemChi 228
actioN 192
Leta 166
Movie 125
sSak 104
Backho 54
ToSsGirL 47
Killer 32
soO 27
zelot 12
[ Show more ]
Bale 11
Icarus 6
NotJumperer 1
Dota 2
The International14587
League of Legends
JimRising 535
Counter-Strike
Stewie2K1012
shoxiejesuss174
Other Games
C9.Mang0340
ceh9198
Mew2King85
Organizations
Other Games
gamesdonequick945
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
sctven
[ Show 12 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• LUISG 4
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• LaughNgamezSOOP
• Migwel
• sooper7s
StarCraft: Brood War
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
League of Legends
• Lourlo1082
Upcoming Events
RSL Revival
2h 30m
Cure vs SHIN
Reynor vs Zoun
Kung Fu Cup
4h 30m
TaeJa vs SHIN
ByuN vs Creator
The PondCast
5h 30m
RSL Revival
1d 2h
Classic vs TriGGeR
ByuN vs Maru
Online Event
1d 4h
Kung Fu Cup
1d 4h
BSL Team Wars
1d 11h
RSL Revival
2 days
Maestros of the Game
2 days
ShoWTimE vs Classic
Clem vs herO
Serral vs Bunny
Reynor vs Zoun
Cosmonarchy
2 days
Bonyth vs Dewalt
[ Show More ]
[BSL 2025] Weekly
2 days
RSL Revival
3 days
Maestros of the Game
3 days
BSL Team Wars
3 days
Afreeca Starleague
4 days
Snow vs Sharp
Jaedong vs Mini
Wardi Open
4 days
Sparkling Tuna Cup
5 days
Afreeca Starleague
5 days
Light vs Speed
Larva vs Soma
LiuLi Cup
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

Copa Latinoamericana 4
SEL Season 2 Championship
HCC Europe

Ongoing

BSL 20 Team Wars
KCM Race Survival 2025 Season 3
BSL 21 Points
ASL Season 20
CSL 2025 AUTUMN (S18)
LASL Season 20
RSL Revival: Season 2
Maestros of the Game
Chzzk MurlocKing SC1 vs SC2 Cup #2
BLAST Open Fall 2025
BLAST Open Fall Qual
Esports World Cup 2025
BLAST Bounty Fall 2025
BLAST Bounty Fall Qual
IEM Cologne 2025
FISSURE Playground #1

Upcoming

2025 Chongqing Offline CUP
BSL Polish World Championship 2025
BSL Season 21
BSL 21 Team A
EC S1
SL Budapest Major 2025
BLAST Rivals Fall 2025
IEM Chengdu 2025
PGL Masters Bucharest 2025
MESA Nomadic Masters Fall
Thunderpick World Champ.
CS Asia Championships 2025
ESL Pro League S22
StarSeries Fall 2025
FISSURE Playground #2
TLPD

1. ByuN
2. TY
3. Dark
4. Solar
5. Stats
6. Nerchio
7. sOs
8. soO
9. INnoVation
10. Elazer
1. Rain
2. Flash
3. EffOrt
4. Last
5. Bisu
6. Soulkey
7. Mini
8. Sharp
Sidebar Settings...

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2025 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.