Remapping Your Hotkeys Hello TL.net-ers! I recently went on a hunt out of interest to make sure that the method of remapping hotkeys had not been lost to the mists of time. The old starcraftgamers (now gosugamers) article seems inaccessible at gosugamers.net, so I have decided to preserve the knowledge here, and hopefully a new generation of players can experience the joy of not hitting 'p' instead of 'o' when trying to siege.
KeyCraft (the program pictured above) stopped working long ago, so I am here to teach you how to do it the more difficult way. Fun Fact: KeyCraft had a bug where, if you didn't change Psionic Storm research's hotkey, it would set it to 'a' instead of 'p'. Thus, I now use 'a' instead of 'p' as my hotkey for that as I never bothered to change it back.
The Programs You will need only two programs to do this (besides Starcraft, obviously). WinMPQ TblPad WinMPQ and TblPad. Find them here (Ctrl + F for TblPad and then for WinMPQ and download them)
Warning I don't believe TblPad gracefully handles having east asian languages installed. If you have them installed, you will have to a) have someone else do it for you b) uninstall east asian languages temporarily or c) [recommended] make use of AppLocale.
The Method
Back up patch_rt.mpq (located in c:\program files\starcraft or similar directory) (ctrl + c then ctrl + v in the folder will make a copy of it)
Open WinMPQ.exe
Go to File → Open and browse to patch_rt.mpq
Scroll down until you find rez\stat_txt.tbl. This file contains hotkeys and tooltips for all things in Starcraft. It is what you will be modifying. You might notice that there are a whole bunch of them. They are different languages. English is (at least for me, and probably for you) the first one. Right click it, and extract to somewhere where you will be able to find it.
Close WinMPQ for now (or leave it open in the background, but we won't use it for a while)
Open up TblPad.exe.
Select File → Open and open up the stat_txt.tbl you extracted. You should now have a list of various things.
Remap hotkeys as you desire!
I'm going to interrupt the steps for a second to walk you through remapping a hotkey. In this example we will remap the Protoss Observer so that it is built by a 'g'. After all, who wants to go all the way to the 'o' key on the right there!
Hit Search and type bserver (without the O!). The reason is that the O in Observer is colored, so it will have markup around it. Thus, searching for "Observer" would not find what we are looking for!
The first result is: o<1>Build <3>O<1>bserver<0>. the <#> tags are markup for coloring. The first letter, o, is the hotkey. <1> represents 'normal' color, while <3> represents the yellow used to represent hotkeys. Since we want our observer to be built with g, let's make some changes!
g<1>Build Observer (<3>G<1> )<0> I didn't have a space between the second <1> and the ), but smiley BBCode is killing my post.
And now, after you have done the remapping of hotkeys as you desire:
Hit File → Save and then File → Exit
Re-open WinMPQ and open patch_rt.mpq again.
Press Mpq → Add... and select stat_txt.tbl
A box will come up asking you the folder! type rez\
Press File → Exit
Open StarCraft and try your changes out!
FAQ Q: You're a cheating asshole A: I don't really think so. If it bothers you, don't play with me and don't use it. There have been extensive discussions over this in the past (do a search on TL for Keycraft) and arguing over this is not my purpose here. I will ignore any people attempting to argue about whether or not this is cheating or hacking or whatever.
Q: I don't use English language BW. Help! A: I don't have any non-English BW versions available to me. I wouldn't be surprised if it works as long as you extract the correct language version from the MPQ (you can make sure you get the right one by opening it up and seeing if it's in your language). If it doesn't, tough luck, sorry, but I have no idea how to help you.
Q: Is it compatible with xyz program? A: Yes, it works with absolutely everything from what I know: bwlauncher, maphacks, chaos launcher, iccup, and so on.
Q: Can you be banned for cheating? A: By Blizzard? Maybe, but I've been using it for around 5 years and haven't been banned. If you do get banned, sorry, but it's not my problem and I will do absolutely nothing to help you about it. By competitions? In person, sure, you probably can't use it at something like WCG. Online, they have absolutely no way of knowing, so they can't really ban you for it. It's not a hack and there have never been rules set for it, although some argue that it's against the spirit of it or somesuch.
Q: Any hotkey recommendations? A: Remap scourge to 'c' or something like that--prevents you from spamming 's' once too many times when selecting larvae and making scourge when you desperately need lings. Remap hotkeys to your left hand--it's much easier to hit the appropriate hotkeys that way. Remap siege mode/mines to 'd' or some similarly easy to hit key. Etc. etc.!
Q: JPG compression sucks and your images should have been PNG A: Yeah, I guess you're right. I don't feel like re-taking the screenshots though.
Q: Something else A: Post in the thread, that's why it's here !
extract it and copy the 2 dll files into C:\windows\system
Q: I use a foreign language version!
On March 28 2009 16:24 Bajadulce wrote: 1. For foreign language stat_txt.tbls simply add them by using the options tab in WinMPQ and changing the locale ID. This sometimes isn't so obvious. 2. Not all strings follow the same pattern. There are rules for different types of strings such as unit training, upgrades, research etc. Details here for those interested: http://www.staredit.net/wiki/TBLPad_Hotkey_String_Format
On March 28 2009 17:24 Catyoul wrote: Here is some info in addition to the guide (feel free to add them to the OP) :
- if you get a list of files unknownblabla instead of the real names, get patch_rt.mpq.txt. In WinMPQ, go to options, then File lists, then Add File list with that file.
- There are several rez\stat_txt.tbl in the list, they correspond to different languages. Here are the locale IDs : 0 Neutral (English) 1031 German 1033 English 1034 Spanish 1036 French 1040 Italian 1046 Portugese Extract the one that fits the locale you want to change.
- If you want to change a different locale than English, before adding stat_txt.tbl back into the mpq, go to options and input the right one in the "Locale ID for adding files" field.
Although I probably won't use this, it's a well written, helpful guide. May I suggest you put the FAQ slightly higher up? That way, it's more likely you'll get less posts likr PrinceofControl's.
On March 27 2009 19:52 dnastyx wrote: Although I probably won't use this, it's a well written, helpful guide. May I suggest you put the FAQ slightly higher up? That way, it's more likely you'll get less posts likr PrinceofControl's.
Thanks
Where would you suggest putting it? Putting the FAQ before the method itself would seem a little strange to me because it would be talking about things that do not yet make sense.
This is banned in any competitive tournament so I find its pretty stupid and it gives an unfair advantage online.
Q: Can you be banned for cheating? A: By Blizzard? Maybe, but I've been using it for around 5 years and haven't been banned. If you do get banned, sorry, but it's not my problem and I will do absolutely nothing to help you about it. By competitions? In person, sure, you probably can't use it at something like WCG. Online, they have absolutely no way of knowing, so they can't really ban you for it.
Funnily enough, I just found the original article at gosugamers.net (not through the search link, but rather from a post at teamliquid.net as I was looking at different topics here with regards to it). You can find it here. I'm leaving my version up anyway though, but if you find my instructions confusing or stupid you can use theirs!
Anyone else brave enough to step up to admit to using modified hotkeys?
The ones I use are (maybe some others I can't think of at the moment, but I think this is all): Protoss: Dark Templar - f Observer - g Corsair - d Cybernetics Core - z Observatory - g Research Psionic Storm - a
Terran: Marine - z Siege Mode - d Spider Mines - d
Zerg: Scourge - c
On March 27 2009 20:14 -orb- wrote: Secondly, you don't need to put "P i a n o M a n" at the end of all your posts... we can see your name very clearly at the top of your posts.
On March 27 2009 20:03 Yaqoob wrote: This is banned in any competitive tournament so I find its pretty stupid and it gives an unfair advantage online.
no it does NOT give you an unfair advantage. you wont suddenly beat bisu because you have superior hotkeys. its unfair the other way arround, because f.e. in the german version you send medics with e instead of a and that fucking sucks to press 1a2a3e my medics often fall behind because of this.
as you are canadian you may get it like this better: if in the NHL only 1 size of hockeysticks would be allowed wouldnt that be fucking unfair the the ppll not falling into the norm? or even better, 1 size skates, wouldnt that be amazing, no more unfair advantages for ppl with big foots and therefor a better stance? just like with hotkeys, its idiotic to not have customizable settings. ppl with small fingers or not freaky alien finger who spread like crazy have an UNFAIR disadvantage.
so all plz stop crying about such minor advantage who are surely not UNFAIR, but enjoy the increased funfactor gained by customizing your hotkeys.
On March 27 2009 20:17 WhuazGoodNjaggah wrote: You wont suddenly beat bisu because you have superior hotkeys.
I won't suddenly beat Bisu if I have maphack either.
as you are canadian you may get it like this better: if in the NHL only 1 size of hockeysticks would be allowed wouldnt that be fucking unfair the the ppll not falling into the norm? or even better, 1 size skates, wouldnt that be amazing, no more unfair advantages for ppl with big foots and therefor a better stance? just like with hotkeys, its idiotic to not have customizable settings. ppl with small fingers or not freaky alien finger who spread like crazy have an UNFAIR disadvantage.
But if there is a rule against, like in SC, it would be cheating. There's tons of sports where some equipment is banned. Like in cycling or F1. Same is true in SC. Some things you are not allowed to use.
And yeah, its unfair. Since if you were to use the normal way to play you would be a lot worse. So the difference between the normal hotkeys and the way you hack the game is quite big, I assume. Why else make so much effort to break the rules.
Also, cheaters are banned on TL.net. Pianoman basically made a guide to cheating. It's not just banned in WCG and any other tournament. It's also considered cheating on iccup, where most people reading here play. Not to mention third party programs aren't allowed on bnet. Not even chaos launcher is technically allowed.
'Cheating' is defined as breaking the rules. Just because you think it's ok to break a rule doesn't mean it's not cheating. Just because you won't be caught breaking the rule doesn't mean it's not cheating. If you want to cheat like this, fine. You are right, it's not that a big deal. Many people won't really care. But cheating it is.
Of course no harm is meant by all this. But that's all besides the point. All those WC3 people that claim SC is easy and then go and remap the keys greatly annoy me. It's almost like me playing them in WC3 and turning off auto rally and smart cast for them.
It's only regarded as cheating by most people because it's not widely known. Include keycraft in the iccup launcher or something like that and it is no longer cheating, it's just another addition to improve the game by those great individuals in the community. As long as everyone has equal ability to edit their keys, it isn't cheating imo. Also to use the reason "it's editing files" to call it cheating, chaos launcher, penguinplug etc, use injection methods identical to map hacks.
I had no idea keycraft stopped working, it wasn't that long that I used it (2 years or so)
Well the difference is that all around the world different versions of BW have different hotkeys, whereas the amount of units you can select is universal. So pretending like everyone is on even footing to begin with isn't correct.
Second there are already programs like chaos coach, and apm alert that are advantageous for one player to have at a certain skill level if his opponent doesn't have it. So this isn't some new precedent, people have been using non hack 3rd party modifications of BW for their own benefit for a long time.
Third it stops being an advantage if everyone has the opportunity to do it. If everyone who ran the ICCUP launcher also had the ability to change their hotkeys there would be no advantage. If instead of resisting it for some reason when probably 75% of the people here don't even play BW anyway, you focused on spreading the knowledge. then it wouldn't be a shortcoming of SC we'd have to live with anymore, would it?
Also, I just ran core.exe from keycraft and it patched my patch_rt fine, so I think it still works
On March 27 2009 20:03 Yaqoob wrote: This is banned in any competitive tournament so I find its pretty stupid and it gives an unfair advantage online.
no it does NOT give you an unfair advantage. you wont suddenly beat bisu because you have superior hotkeys. its unfair the other way arround, because f.e. in the german version you send medics with e instead of a and that fucking sucks to press 1a2a3e my medics often fall behind because of this.
Well, it's your own fault for using fucking stupid german version of SC. Everyone plays with the english keys, learn to do so aswell.EDIT:Actually,Blizz should've set the same hotkey for all versions.. but you should not complain, you chose to play that version, you either get used to the hotkeys that are there or switch over to english version. No one is forcing you to use the german version and using keycraft is not an option, imo.
its idiotic to not have customizable settings. ppl with small fingers or not freaky alien finger who spread like crazy have an UNFAIR disadvantage.
On March 27 2009 20:12 janenba56 wrote: cheating is using 3rd party programs to give someone an advantage over another person.
respect for the amount of effort you put into this but at its core this is cheating
I'm using a french keyboard azerty
OMFG, I DON'T PRESS THE SAME KEYS THAN YOU IMO BAN ALL FRENCH PLAYERS!!
But there is worse... I used a french version of the game for ages!
OMFFFFFG BAN ALL PEOPLE WHO HAVE DIFFERENT VERSION OF THE GAME STORM ON T IS FUCKING IMBA!!
That's silly.
I used that program log time ago to hotkey p my comsat. 0s 9s is far and I'm too lazy.
It's nowhere in IcCup rules that you can't do that. Nor in bnet rules. So fuck that. Obviously, if you go for an msl, you won't be allowed to change your computer, but otherwise whatever?
People are just fucking stupid with this competitive stuff. I play for fun, I find the game more confortable with a lightly customized keyboard, what's wrong with that??
And if you really are that stupid, why don't you complain that people are using different keyboard? Should I cry because I play on a laptop which is way harder to master than a desktop keyboard? So wtf, guys, seriously?
On March 27 2009 20:17 WhuazGoodNjaggah wrote: You wont suddenly beat bisu because you have superior hotkeys.
I won't suddenly beat Bisu if I have maphack either.
if you had half a brain you would put that statement into relation. i would own my clanmate hard if i turned mh on, but when i change medic key from e to a i wont suddenly win more vs him, the only thing changed is, that i wont miss my medics in a fight that often. i could also change the version to english everytime i play a TvZ, then the medic key would be changed too. wouldnt that be an amazing way to play the game? especially because it makes it impossible for me to play random, what if i suddenly have to play TvZ?
as you are canadian you may get it like this better: if in the NHL only 1 size of hockeysticks would be allowed wouldnt that be fucking unfair the the ppll not falling into the norm? or even better, 1 size skates, wouldnt that be amazing, no more unfair advantages for ppl with big foots and therefor a better stance? just like with hotkeys, its idiotic to not have customizable settings. ppl with small fingers or not freaky alien finger who spread like crazy have an UNFAIR disadvantage.
But if there is a rule against, like in SC, it would be cheating. There's tons of sports where some equipment is banned. Like in cycling or F1. Same is true in SC. Some things you are not allowed to use.
yes and we as community make the rules. its not like different tires are banned in cycling, its not different skate sizes which are banned in icehockey its not different shoecolor thats banned in football. its fucking ridiculous to ban such things which make no big difference especially if there IS already different things of that. we as community shouldnt cry about things like keycraft we should cry because of maphacks and queue hacks and multi select and multi command and drop warnings and shit like this.
And yeah, its unfair. Since if you were to use the normal way to play you would be a lot worse. So the difference between the normal hotkeys and the way you hack the game is quite big, I assume. Why else make so much effort to break the rules.
ok, i underlined and bolded the shit you spit. you dont even know how much different it is, yet you dare to talk about it like you are wisdom itself. i am currently playing with normal settings as im simply to lazy to change it, why? BECAUSE IT DOESNT MAKE A HUGE DIFFERENCE! f.e. i played a TvZ vs my clanmate, we are about equal me a bit better than him (like i win 4 out of 7). this TvZ took like 50mins, i won but i was fucking angry after the game, because i left my medics like 2 or 3 times behind, it was just unecessary but it didnt decide the game. he didnt win the game because i have a fucked up key setting, but it significantly lowered the fun for me to play TvZ and i love to play TvZ.
Also, cheaters are banned on TL.net. Pianoman basically made a guide to cheating. It's not just banned in WCG and any other tournament. It's also considered cheating on iccup, where most people reading here play. Not to mention third party programs aren't allowed on bnet. Not even chaos launcher is technically allowed.
why you say chaos launcher (actually its plugins) is TECHNICALLY not allowed? its against the rules = its cheating = dont fucking treat it different. if you name it dont lower the fact just say it plain and correct. ChaosLauncher plugins = cheat/against the rules PERIOD!
Of course no harm is meant by all this. But that's all besides the point. All those WC3 people that claim SC is easy and then go and remap the keys greatly annoy me. It's almost like me playing them in WC3 and turning off auto rally and smart cast for them.
wow your really ignorant. as if the skill in bw relies in the hotkey setup.
On March 27 2009 21:24 Scooge wrote: What's the difference between this and a hack that allows multiple building selection? It's just a convenience for casual players right?
L2P the game the way it was designed and with its shortcomings and stop trying to get an advantage over people.
you like hard numbers? i can tell you the difference. to make 10 zealots i can do it like this 1b2b3b4b5b6b7b8b9b0b b=build zealot or i can do it like this 1z2z3z4z5z6z7z8z9z0z this takes almost the same ammount of time, BUT with multiple buildings you do this: 1z thats 10 times less as actions as the other 2. dont make fucking shit comparings. its like comparing murder to stealing a chewing gum.
also im not trying to get an advantage over someone when i adjust my hotkeys i just want to have the SAME as my opponent. my opponent can send his medics with a, i want to send my medics with a aswell, is that so much of an advantage i get?
On March 27 2009 21:39 meathook wrote: This is considered cheating.. mods should lock this, imo. TL does not have guides on how to use oblivion, and this should be no different.
then lock all the chaos launcher threads, advloader threads, apmlive threads, bwchart threads too, ok? they have about the same relation to oblivion like hacks as KeyCraft has.
On March 27 2009 20:03 Yaqoob wrote: This is banned in any competitive tournament so I find its pretty stupid and it gives an unfair advantage online.
no it does NOT give you an unfair advantage. you wont suddenly beat bisu because you have superior hotkeys. its unfair the other way arround, because f.e. in the german version you send medics with e instead of a and that fucking sucks to press 1a2a3e my medics often fall behind because of this.
Well, it's your own fault for using fucking stupid german version of SC. Everyone plays with the english keys, learn to do so aswell.EDIT:Actually,Blizz should've set the same hotkey for all versions.. but you should not complain, you chose to play that version, you either get used to the hotkeys that are there or switch over to english version. No one is forcing you to use the german version and using keycraft is not an option, imo.
noone is forcing me to use german version? in my country i can only buy either french or german version of starcraft. only because some mind crippled idiot like you tell me i cant play a game how i feel convinient without getting an unfair advantage i should buy another version of starcraft?
oh and plz all the whiners, dont play maps like bluestorm, because they are all made with 3rd party programs and therefor violate the EULA.
I dont see how this can be considered cheating. If i want to use other hotkeys its ok for me to buy the german starcraft cd and play with those hotkeys? Or maybe ill buy a russian one... hmm or maybe chinese startcraft fits me better.
On March 27 2009 20:17 WhuazGoodNjaggah wrote: You wont suddenly beat bisu because you have superior hotkeys.
I won't suddenly beat Bisu if I have maphack either.
if you had half a brain you would put that statement into relation. i would own my clanmate hard if i turned mh on, but when i change medic key from e to a i wont suddenly win more vs him, the only thing changed is, that i wont miss my medics in a fight that often. i could also change the version to english everytime i play a TvZ, then the medic key would be changed too. wouldnt that be an amazing way to play the game? especially because it makes it impossible for me to play random, what if i suddenly have to play TvZ?
as you are canadian you may get it like this better: if in the NHL only 1 size of hockeysticks would be allowed wouldnt that be fucking unfair the the ppll not falling into the norm? or even better, 1 size skates, wouldnt that be amazing, no more unfair advantages for ppl with big foots and therefor a better stance? just like with hotkeys, its idiotic to not have customizable settings. ppl with small fingers or not freaky alien finger who spread like crazy have an UNFAIR disadvantage.
But if there is a rule against, like in SC, it would be cheating. There's tons of sports where some equipment is banned. Like in cycling or F1. Same is true in SC. Some things you are not allowed to use.
yes and we as community make the rules. its not like different tires are banned in cycling, its not different skate sizes which are banned in icehockey its not different shoecolor thats banned in football. its fucking ridiculous to ban such things which make no big difference especially if there IS already different things of that. we as community shouldnt cry about things like keycraft we should cry because of maphacks and queue hacks and multi select and multi command and drop warnings and shit like this.
And yeah, its unfair. Since if you were to use the normal way to play you would be a lot worse. So the difference between the normal hotkeys and the way you hack the game is quite big, I assume. Why else make so much effort to break the rules.
ok, i underlined and bolded the shit you spit. you dont even know how much different it is, yet you dare to talk about it like you are wisdom itself. i am currently playing with normal settings as im simply to lazy to change it, why? BECAUSE IT DOESNT MAKE A HUGE DIFFERENCE! f.e. i played a TvZ vs my clanmate, we are about equal me a bit better than him (like i win 4 out of 7). this TvZ took like 50mins, i won but i was fucking angry after the game, because i left my medics like 2 or 3 times behind, it was just unecessary but it didnt decide the game. he didnt win the game because i have a fucked up key setting, but it significantly lowered the fun for me to play TvZ and i love to play TvZ.
Also, cheaters are banned on TL.net. Pianoman basically made a guide to cheating. It's not just banned in WCG and any other tournament. It's also considered cheating on iccup, where most people reading here play. Not to mention third party programs aren't allowed on bnet. Not even chaos launcher is technically allowed.
why you say chaos launcher (actually its plugins) is TECHNICALLY not allowed? its against the rules = its cheating = dont fucking treat it different. if you name it dont lower the fact just say it plain and correct. ChaosLauncher plugins = cheat/against the rules PERIOD!
Of course no harm is meant by all this. But that's all besides the point. All those WC3 people that claim SC is easy and then go and remap the keys greatly annoy me. It's almost like me playing them in WC3 and turning off auto rally and smart cast for them.
wow your really ignorant. as if the skill in bw relies in the hotkey setup.
On March 27 2009 21:24 Scooge wrote: What's the difference between this and a hack that allows multiple building selection? It's just a convenience for casual players right?
L2P the game the way it was designed and with its shortcomings and stop trying to get an advantage over people.
you like hard numbers? i can tell you the difference. to make 10 zealots i can do it like this 1b2b3b4b5b6b7b8b9b0b b=build zealot or i can do it like this 1z2z3z4z5z6z7z8z9z0z this takes almost the same ammount of time, BUT with multiple buildings you do this: 1z thats 10 times less as actions as the other 2. dont make fucking shit comparings. its like comparing murder to stealing a chewing gum.
also im not trying to get an advantage over someone when i adjust my hotkeys i just want to have the SAME as my opponent. my opponent can send his medics with a, i want to send my medics with a aswell, is that so much of an advantage i get?
On March 27 2009 21:39 meathook wrote: This is considered cheating.. mods should lock this, imo. TL does not have guides on how to use oblivion, and this should be no different.
then lock all the chaos launcher threads, advloader threads, apmlive threads, bwchart threads too, ok? they have about the same relation to oblivion like hacks as KeyCraft has.
On March 27 2009 20:03 Yaqoob wrote: This is banned in any competitive tournament so I find its pretty stupid and it gives an unfair advantage online.
no it does NOT give you an unfair advantage. you wont suddenly beat bisu because you have superior hotkeys. its unfair the other way arround, because f.e. in the german version you send medics with e instead of a and that fucking sucks to press 1a2a3e my medics often fall behind because of this.
Well, it's your own fault for using fucking stupid german version of SC. Everyone plays with the english keys, learn to do so aswell.EDIT:Actually,Blizz should've set the same hotkey for all versions.. but you should not complain, you chose to play that version, you either get used to the hotkeys that are there or switch over to english version. No one is forcing you to use the german version and using keycraft is not an option, imo.
noone is forcing me to use german version? in my country i can only buy either french or german version of starcraft. only because some mind crippled idiot like you tell me i cant play a game how i feel convinient without getting an unfair advantage i should buy another version of starcraft?
oh and plz all the whiners, dont play maps like bluestorm, because they are all made with 3rd party programs and therefor violate the EULA.
On March 27 2009 23:20 micronesia wrote: I don't think that was me :O
2 Doesn't really make sense to me... do you really need to 'practice' mapping your hotkeys? When the game comes out we'll deal with it...
Oh I'm not sure who it was then.
The point was that since you can remap hotkeys in sc2, you should prepare for it by, say, mapping the comsat scan hotkey to p now, so that when sc2 comes out, you can just put your scan to p, and you won't have to get used to a new hotkey.
On March 27 2009 23:03 StylishVODs wrote: I dont see how this can be considered cheating. If i want to use other hotkeys its ok for me to buy the german starcraft cd and play with those hotkeys? Or maybe ill buy a russian one... hmm or maybe chinese startcraft fits me better.
Hotkeys aren't the same everywhere.
You're the same guy who got caught point swapping with multiple accounts to get to A- on Iccup right? You didn't think that was wrong too. Your views are different than mine apparently.
On March 27 2009 20:17 WhuazGoodNjaggah wrote: i would own my clanmate hard if i turned mh on, but when i change medic key from e to a i wont suddenly win more vs him, the only thing changed is, that i wont miss my medics in a fight that often. i could also change the version to english everytime i play a TvZ, then the medic key would be changed too. wouldnt that be an amazing way to play the game? especially because it makes it impossible for me to play random, what if i suddenly have to play TvZ?
An advantage, even if slight, is cheating. There is no degree. If you copy half an answer or the whole test from the person sitting next to you, you're cheating. I don't care if this gives you a +1 APM advantage and maphack allows you to see everything. It's an advantage you wouldn't have had in normal gameplay, that was added via external means and wasn't given to your opponent. While different countries have different hotkey layouts, there are tradeoffs. The Chinese version might have stim on the P key instead. If you find one that fits your style, fine, use it. What hotkey changing does it lets you set all the keys to positions you're comfortable with. I don't have a problem with this if it was available to everyone and built into StarCraft, but it's not. Deal with it.
Stop trying to rationalize why you cheat. If you want to do it, do it, but don't be a pussy about it. The OP at least admitted he didn't care if this was cheating.
I guess it serves it's purposes as long as you play casually. But as soon as you start playing Iccup or some tournaments, it's not just unfair but forbidden.
There's no comparison with remapping all your desired keys to places easier for you hand to reach and having an apm live meter. And let's not be pedantic, this isn't a guide for cheating. Maybe some people actually enjoy playing bgh or fastest and they'd rather remapp some hotkeys to match hand speed.
To be honest, I find it interesting, but I wouldn't use it because I'm too accustomed to standard hotkeys. And I also wouldn't play you or anyone using it. Just keep this at the stage of something interesting and purely recreational and perhaps add a disclaimer to your little guide telling people not to use it on Iccup.
its not cheating: - bw language hotkeys are different - keyboard layouts are different - people have different hand sizes
nothing of this should have an influence on the skill of a player.
so lets just play the game in the most natural, optimal way for everyone and see the real beauty of the competition (not getting forced to adapt a certain hotkey layout)
thx for the guide. i cannot start those programs....can someone upload a full doxstar mpq?
Blizzard didn't deliberately try and rig all the different language versions so the hotkeys were equally intuitive on them all. It's not naturally balanced, some versions may be better than others. By allowing players to remap at will it'd remove that unfairness. That said, I'd only use it if it was built into the icc launcher so everyone had the option.
On March 27 2009 23:56 r3dox wrote: its not cheating: - bw language hotkeys are different - keyboard layouts are different - people have different hand sizes
nothing of this should have an influence on the skill of a player.
so lets just play the game in the most natural, optimal way for everyone and see the real beauty of the competition (not getting forced to adapt a certain hotkey layout)
thx for the guide, can someone upload a full doxstar mpq?
Maybe it's just me, but a competition usually provides equal chances to the competitors. As long as both players have the ability to remapp hotkeys, I've got nothing against it. But that doesn't apply on on-line ladders.
On March 27 2009 22:47 WhuazGoodNjaggah wrote: if you had half a brain you would put that statement into relation.
If I had half a brain I would be able to read your posts. Or, I would be dead. Put statement into relation? What does that mean? Does it mean to let you off the hook and just accept the point behind the rherotic?
i would own my clanmate hard if i turned mh on, but when i change medic key from e to a i wont suddenly win more vs him,
So? If I used mineralhack vs Bisu I would own him hard. But if I used just maphack I wouldn't suddenly win more vs him. I fail to get the point.
You made two analogies and they both failed.
the only thing changed is, that i wont miss my medics in a fight that often.
And that isn't an advantage?
i could also change the version to english everytime i play a TvZ, then the medic key would be changed too.
Everytime you play an offline tournament you are forced to play with the English version. Asking for a german version is not allowed. You have to play with the English version. Asking to be allowed to use half the hotkeys from the English version and half those of the german one also isn't allowed. Iccup doesn't ban non-English versions. You really want them to go that far to fix Blizzard's mistake?
[wouldnt that be an amazing way to play the game? especially because it makes it impossible for me to play random, what if i suddenly have to play TvZ?
What?
yes and we as community make the rules.
This is incorrect. And if the community made the rules theres a clear consensus that remapping shortcuts is cheating.
its not like different tires are banned in cycling,
Yes, stuff is banned in cycling. Either on the road or on the track, there are clear requirements for the bikes.
its not different skate sizes which are banned in icehockey its not different shoecolor thats banned in football.
Just because no equipment is banned in icehockey that doesn't mean nothing is banned in whatever sports and thus nothing ought to be banned in SC, when in fact it is and it clearly should be. And yeah, there are places where brightly coloured shoes are banned in football.
ok, i underlined and bolded the shit you spit. you dont even know how much different it is, yet you dare to talk about it like you are wisdom itself.
That's because it's different for everyone. You have to get the muscle memory to use the shortcuts. If you learn it both ways equally, there is no difference. And clearly having to 1a2a3e4 because of medics is harder for everyone if one used the german version. So clearly it does make a difference to certain people. And I can only assume this since I didn't actually go and measure it. Idiot.
. its fucking ridiculous to ban such things which make no big difference...
Uuh, just a bit earlier you admitted that it did make a difference. Surely there is a difference. You can map probe key 'p' to 's'. That is a difference. That's why people map keys. If it made no difference, why bother?
especially if there IS already different things of that.
It's hard to ban certain language versions on iccup. And you can't pick your personal preference. You are just stuck with whatever each language version has. Using third party program or adjusting the game data to your personal preferecen to gain an advantage is clearly not fair and different from using different language versions.
we as community shouldnt cry about things like keycraft we should cry because of maphacks and queue hacks and multi select and multi command and drop warnings and shit like this.
What about replacing the DT cloacked bitmap sprites with the uncloacked ones?
why you say chaos launcher (actually its plugins) is TECHNICALLY not allowed? its against the rules = its cheating = dont fucking treat it different.
What? You think that remapping keys isn't cheating but you think chaos launcher plugins are? And you accuse me of hypocricy? WTF dude...
wow your really ignorant. as if the skill in bw relies in the hotkey setup.
Apparently it does because people remap their hotkeys.
no it does NOT give you an unfair advantage. you wont suddenly beat bisu because you have superior hotkeys.
I thought I already showed how poor this argument was and you just use it again vs some other person.
its unfair the other way arround, because f.e. in the german version you send medics with e instead of a and that fucking sucks to press 1a2a3e my medics often fall behind because of this.
Germans are forced to play the german version in WCG?
noone is forcing me to use german version?
Then how is it unfair?
in my country i can only buy either french or german version of starcraft.
Don't be a liar just to support your cheating. And even if this were true, there are other ways to get the English version besides buying it which are all perfectly legal. And even if you had to use remapping method to remap it exactly to the English version, you argue that setting it up any way you prefer the most is what should not be considered as cheating.
oh and plz all the whiners, dont play maps like bluestorm, because they are all made with 3rd party programs and therefor violate the EULA.
Blue Storm is in the iccup mappack.
On March 27 2009 23:56 r3dox wrote: its not cheating: - bw language hotkeys are different
So? It's still against the rules to edit the game data or use third person programs to get an advantage.
- keyboard layouts are different
There are rules for keyboards in WCG. And even if there weren't, you can't do exactly the same thing with different keyboard layouts. And even if you could, the rules still say hacking the game is cheating.
- people have different hand sizes
People also have different brains. Does that mean I am allowed to close this gap between me and other people using certain third party programs?
Plus, I don't see how hand sizes ever give someone an advantage in SC. And even if it did, how should it not be of influence?
so lets just play the game in the most natural,
What does this mean? The most natural way to play Sc?
^ I wish people would stop posting like that. You have literally nothing of value to say to any of his points and yet insist on quoting each section and adding a one liner. You're making your shitty contrarian argument take up 10 times the amount of space it needs to for no reason. If all you have to contribute is LOL NO <insert equally bad counter analogy> you should at least to do it as succinctly as possible instead of such a ridiculous format that only serves to isolate how bad every point you made actually is.
On March 27 2009 23:03 StylishVODs wrote: I dont see how this can be considered cheating. If i want to use other hotkeys its ok for me to buy the german starcraft cd and play with those hotkeys? Or maybe ill buy a russian one... hmm or maybe chinese startcraft fits me better.
Hotkeys aren't the same everywhere.
You're the same guy who got caught point swapping with multiple accounts to get to A- on Iccup right? You didn't think that was wrong too. Your views are different than mine apparently.
floor exercise, thanks for the ad hominem. What can I say in my defense?
I think that fighting the arguments made in support of certain forms of cheating is a pretty good idea. Especially is they are bad. Now you can say the ones that were made are too bad to even require refutation, especially if they take up a lot of space, and maybe that's a fair point. But please give me the benefit of the doubt in my naiveness that all arguments in support of cheating should be fought.
the only decent claim in this thread for the legality of keybinding is that non-english configs can be at a disadvantage in some cases.
this almost sounds like a fair enough reason to allow rebinding, until upon closer examination you aren't rebinding in the interest of fairness at all, you are doing it purely for an advantage.
rebinding to the best, most comfortable and efficient bindings you can find is not in the interest of fairness no matter how you try to paint X foreign binding as unfair. if you were rebinding your entire control scheme to match the english you might have a case, however you aren't and you don't.
It's cheating, but no more than having a better mouse, keyboard or monitor than me. I don't mind if my opponents use this, but hopefully they have the smarts to be GM since my setup is about as ghetto as it gets. I don't want someone who wins because they have better controls than me bragging.
Just out of curiosity, seeing as someone mentioned that there are diffrent versions of starcraft(german, french etc), I assume the hotkey mapping would be diffrent.
In proleague, do progamers use the english version (and it's hotkey-mapping), or are they using a korean version of starcraft with it's respective hotkey-mapping.
I can't deny that it is advantageous to choose your hotkeys if your opponent doesn't have the choice. For example putting spider mines and siege mode on the same key means there's a lot less chance of misclicking when you are pushing. Putting Patrol closer to the keys you use to control units, like near 1-5, makes vulture harass easier. There are clear advantages to rebinding your keys.
My point is, as a community we've made bnet lag a thing of the past (for the most part) we've added all sorts of features to the game that blizzard has tried to copy and hasn't even done as good a job. By we I mean the clever few who make these programs and whatnot, not me.
So why can't we bring SC further out of the dark ages and make rebinding keys acceptable and easy to do practice for every player? How can we interpret the restriction on key rebinding as some sort of intentional aspect of the game instead of just an oversight or limitation of the game when it was designed.
It's by and large a matter of convenience. We have already added tons of convenient features that don't have a negative impact on the game and I think keybinding is one of those. I don't believe trying to maintain the purity of the game is a legitimate argument against it since we all play with crazy plugins and addons already.
And if you think people keybinding have an unfair advantage over you, that's more reason to make it publically accepted so that you too can benefit from having your own keys
Pretty much every game in the entire world lets you rebind keys, we have the ability to bring that level of functionality to BW and people would rather call it cheating?
And for the record I have burrow set to E, and I play on iccup like that! I am a filthy degenerate cheater
Remapping hotkeys is necessarily cheating but it's not entirely honest, either - only because not everyone knows about it. But my opinion, honestly, is if you're complaining about pushing 'o' for siege QQ more - you can get used to it, it's part of the mechanical skill of playing Starcraft.
On March 28 2009 00:44 floor exercise wrote: ^ I wish people would stop posting like that. You have literally nothing of value to say to any of his points and yet insist on quoting each section and adding a one liner. You're making your shitty contrarian argument take up 10 times the amount of space it needs to for no reason. If all you have to contribute is LOL NO <insert equally bad counter analogy> you should at least to do it as succinctly as possible instead of such a ridiculous format that only serves to isolate how bad every point you made actually is.
agreed. But back on the topic, I think it's only illegal because not everyone has access to it. And no, putting it on team liquid doesn't mean everyone has access to it.... yet but if blizzard made a patch to allow this everything would be fine... Just the fact that some people have it and some people don't makes it unfair, clear and simple.
Just to make a quick example, i noticed a lot of people saying that people with small hands deserve to have a chance to re-map their keys so they are on an equal playing field with people with bigger hands. But what about the other people with small hands that don't know about this program? It's clear to see an advantage between the two small handed people.
(all of this might have been said already and Im sorry if it was)
On March 28 2009 02:10 Typho0n wrote: Just to make a quick example, i noticed a lot of people saying that people with small hands deserve to have a chance to re-map their keys so they are on an equal playing field with people with bigger hands. But what about the other people with small hands that don't know about this program? It's clear to see an advantage between the two small handed people.
What about people with no hands? They should be able to compete too. My body doesn't really build up muscles, which means I could not compete as a body builder even if I wanted to. If something limits you from competing on the highest levels then thats just the way it is, bad luck. I never heard someone complaining he could not get to C because his hands are too small.
That being said, if someone remaps their hotkey, and their opponent does not know about it, then I consider it cheating. Customisable hotkeys are not part of the game, and people lived with it. Players learned to play with those mechanics and for some it is their life.
Let's take a look at Quake 3. Customisation is part of the game and you can get a lot of advantages with tweaks in your configuration. You can alter the game so it fits you individually best, which is a good thing. On the other hand it is just another barrier, a new player has to learn.
I would not mind customisable hotkeys, probably even welcome them, but they would have to be introduced everywhere (read: Patch 1.17). But that also comes with consequences on the proscene.
Guys, I use dvorak keyboardlayout, which totally fucks up my hotkeys in BW and it is very annoying to have to switch keyboard layouts every time I want to play BW.Thanks to this guide, I will be able to remap my hotkeys to the normal positions.
please store this post in safe re-findable place as i had this problem some days ago and really got mad to find a solution ... solution which i couldn't find!
On March 27 2009 23:51 Scooge wrote: Stop trying to rationalize why you cheat. If you want to do it, do it, but don't be a pussy about it. The OP at least admitted he didn't care if this was cheating.
i couldnt give more of a fuck if you consider it cheating or not. imo its not cheating, because i dont get an advantage if i change my medic hotkey, its the same fucking thing as using the english hotkeys. i fucking hate your hypocrisy because you accept the usage of bwchart (YES THIS GIVES YOU AN ADVANTAGE OR WHY ELSE ARE YOU USING IT?) but deny my right to have the same hotkey for my medics and marines.
On March 28 2009 00:24 Diomedes wrote: So? If I used mineralhack vs Bisu I would own him hard. But if I used just maphack I wouldn't suddenly win more vs him. I fail to get the point. You made two analogies and they both failed.
the only thing changed is, that i wont miss my medics in a fight that often.
And that isn't an advantage?
you fail to get the point, because your way to stupid. Did you pass primary school? It's an analogy to show the difference between an unfair advantage and a slight not significant advantage. So yes, switching hotkeys CAN be an advantage, but its not unfair you wont even be better by 1/100. your problem is that you compare such little advantages to pros where win and loss depends on such small advantages BUT WE ARE NOT PROS! We don't win because of such minor shit!
Everytime you play an offline tournament you are forced to play with the English version. Asking for a german version is not allowed. You have to play with the English version. Asking to be allowed to use half the hotkeys from the English version and half those of the german one also isn't allowed. Iccup doesn't ban non-English versions. You really want them to go that far to fix Blizzard's mistake?
how can I take you serious if you show me that you dont have a clue what the fuck you are talking about. http://www.wcg.com/6th/2008/tournament/Rules_Regulations.zip download the fucking rules and show me where they state that you have to use English hotkeys! WOW, you look at customized keyboard layouts as something bad that should be fixed? Damn you are really mind crippled.
This is incorrect. And if the community made the rules theres a clear consensus that remapping shortcuts is cheating.
yeah, extremely clear, thats why im the only one in this thread who thinks custom hotkeys should be standard. We as a community could promote programms like keycraft, so everyone part of this community can profit from it. But if we keep it down because of morrons like you, surly very few will find it and use it and it surly will remain unaccepted.
Yes, stuff is banned in cycling. Either on the road or on the track, there are clear requirements for the bikes. Just because no equipment is banned in icehockey that doesn't mean nothing is banned in whatever sports and thus nothing ought to be banned in SC, when in fact it is and it clearly should be. And yeah, there are places where brightly coloured shoes are banned in football.
OMG, you are really fucking stupid. Did I every say no equipment is banned in Ice-Hockey? Its like im talking to a wall. You are to stupid to differentiate between things. Do you see in colors or only black and white? Must be really cool to live in a monochrome world. GUESS WHAT, I AM PRO BANNING MAPHACK MINERALHACK QUEUEHACK SELECTIONHACK MULTICOMMANDHACK STATSHACK etc but I'm AGAINST banning minor advantageous third party programms such as bwchart, chaoscoach or keycraft. You know I can make a difference between things because I measure them beyound digital levels. Open your fucking eyes and realize that there is more than 0 and 1!
That's because it's different for everyone. You have to get the muscle memory to use the shortcuts. If you learn it both ways equally, there is no difference. And clearly having to 1a2a3e4 because of medics is harder for everyone if one used the german version. So clearly it does make a difference to certain people. And I can only assume this since I didn't actually go and measure it. Idiot.
Thats the exact problem, you just spit bullshit make assumptions call me the idiot when in fact YOU are idiot. I played the game with both settings, I didn't get better when I had customized keys it was just not as frustrating. Because I have the expirience and made this fucking measurement I have more knowledge about it than you do. This makes you the idiot who is spitting bullshit and makes me the wise man who knows what the fuck hes talking about. As always you should first get your facts up then talk about it. I hate idiots like you who think they can talk about any issue but in fact have no clue!
Uuh, just a bit earlier you admitted that it did make a difference. Surely there is a difference. You can map probe key 'p' to 's'. That is a difference. That's why people map keys. If it made no difference, why bother?
LEARN TO READ FUCKING FIRST GRADER! I clearly said it makes no BIG B.I.G difference! Why I change hotkeys? I already said that too, so again LEARN TO FUCKING READ! Its to lower frustration, it's more intuitive. If I want a advantage I'd make myself a fucking Maphack!
It's hard to ban certain language versions on iccup. And you can't pick your personal preference. You are just stuck with whatever each language version has. Using third party program or adjusting the game data to your personal preferecen to gain an advantage is clearly not fair and different from using different language versions.
ITS NOT TO GAIN ADVANTAGE! Fucking get that into your small brain, IT IS NOT TO GAIN ADVANTAGE! NOT! OK? Did it get through your frame? Can you finally accept that there is not the slightest intention to gain an advantage by altering your hotkeys?
we as community shouldnt cry about things like keycraft we should cry because of maphacks and queue hacks and multi select and multi command and drop warnings and shit like this.
What about replacing the DT cloacked bitmap sprites with the uncloacked ones?
why you say chaos launcher (actually its plugins) is TECHNICALLY not allowed? its against the rules = its cheating = dont fucking treat it different.
What? You think that remapping keys isn't cheating but you think chaos launcher plugins are? And you accuse me of hypocricy? WTF dude...
WOOOW, this is like the peak of your stupidness. Making DTs visible is they should not be visible is a feature of a maphack and CLEARLY falls into a different category than KeyCraft. Statements like this show me that you really cant differentiate between things, how old are you? DONT EVERY LAY BULLSHIT INTO MY MOUTH! I NEVER SAID KeyCraft = no hack and Chaos = Hack, NEVER! I said if you use your zero tolerance on KeyCraft be fucking consequent and use it on Chaos-Stuff too. It was simply the word technically which you abused!
your really ignorant. as if the skill in bw relies in the hotkey setup.
Apparently it does because people remap their hotkeys. I thought I already showed how poor this argument was and you just use it again vs some other person.
OK, then play a game vs me. We meet in b.net and if you win I switch to custom keys and own your ass badly. If I win you switch to custom keys and own my ass badly? Ok? PM me your account and we can measure it instead of shittalking like you keep doing all the time.
Germans are forced to play the german version in WCG?
they are not, why ask? I thought your the one who knows the rules exceptionally well (see rules above BUAHAHAHAHA)
in my country i can only buy either french or german version of starcraft.
Don't be a liar just to support your cheating. And even if this were true, there are other ways to get the English version besides buying it which are all perfectly legal. And even if you had to use remapping method to remap it exactly to the English version, you argue that setting it up any way you prefer the most is what should not be considered as cheating.
you call me a liar? HEY ASSHOLE, COME HERE AND SHOW ME WHERE I CAN BUY ENGLISH VERSION, OK? If I dont buy the english version I alter StarCraft in any way I violate the EULA, thats btw the shit you didnt read an just clicked accept.
oh and plz all the whiners, dont play maps like bluestorm, because they are all made with 3rd party programs and therefor violate the EULA.
Blue Storm is in the iccup mappack.
YAY, you are so stupid its almost funny again. What a deadly argument, you completely changed my mind. Customized Stuff is really bad.
Please get some knowledge, grow up, learn how to handle things beyond 0 and 1 and dont fucking take sentences out of their context. If you replay to my post again use a full text, you can expect that I'm capable of relate your statements accordingly, unlike you.
yes there is a reason why i insult, because i cant stand stupid ppl talk about shit they obviously dont know. oh, and i can and did prove my point otherwise, dont make it look like i didnt give enough rational reasons.
1. Different language BW have different hotkeys, keycraft would give everyone the equal chance.
2. Different screens, keyboards and mouses will give different players advantages over another player. Unless everyone uses the same version of bw and the same equipment there is no way to avoid this, thus this program will only even it out.
3. I heard that SC2 will have this feature, and many other games has this feature. It's a good feature.
I agree that it will give you a slight advantage over those who doesn't use it, but the reason why i still think it should be accepted is the above points.
I really hope they will release a version where they allow this officially so everyone can start using it.
I was shown this by a good player, and when I asked him, he and alot of other players said that it was not concidered cheating, and using the logic I did in the above points I also figured that this is not a bad thing. However since its not widely spread Im abit reluctant to changing alot of hotkeys and as it is now i use "b v" for building bunker instead of "b u" and also irradiate on "t".
In many sports they can customise their "tool", but ofcourse withing limited boundaries. Same goes for most E-sport games. Even starcraft 2. They should really try to officialize this into bw aswell.
Edit: also Scooge, if you cannot base an argument on what I wrote then dont post at all in response to my arguement please. I don't want to flame you but if you don't know the difference between this and mutliple building selection even after reading the replies of many people here then you need to open your mind.
How come no one mentions keyboards, like the Logitech G15, as cheating? You can rebind that entire keyboard to match your needs (Be it typing, programming, gaming). That's completely outside the bounds of StarCraft as well.
Well, let's assume you do remapp your hotkeys. And let's also assume you remapp them because you find some of them are hard to reach or you just want to prevent incidents where units get leaved behind/tech not starting because you pressed the wrong key. In this situation, you changed them to make it easier for yourself. In this situation, if your opponent hasn't changed his to ease his play, I do consider you have an unfair advantage.
And how does a live apm pluging or even bwchart can even compare to that. Apm live lets you see your apm, but does that really increase you macro, does is really make you micro better. As far as I'm concerned it's just something else that sets you attention off the actual game.
And please, bwchart is used as a post-game analysis for replays, meaning it doesn't affect the actual game at all. In the end, the community decision is based on majority's oppinion. And everytime this came up, there were always more people that dispoved it than supporters.
Well, let's assume you do remapp your hotkeys. And let's also assume you remapp them because you find some of them are hard to reach or you just want to prevent incidents where units get leaved behind/tech not starting because you pressed the wrong key. In this situation, you changed them to make it easier for yourself. In this situation, if your opponent hasn't changed his to ease his play, I do consider you have an unfair advantage.
I agree. But when I'm buying a better screen, mouse or keyboard to be able to play starcraft better I also might have an advantage to a dude using a roll-mouse, 12'' screen and an old keyboard. Also I'm allowed to take away different keys from the keyboard to make it easier for myself not to miss a specific key. I think these things fall under the similar category don't you think?
On March 27 2009 20:33 Diomedes wrote: Also, cheaters are banned on TL.net. Pianoman basically made a guide to cheating.
No one has ever been banned from TL.net for using programs like Chaos Launcher or KeyCraft. TL.net's view of cheating is different from Blizzard's view.
extract it and copy the 2 dll files into C:\windows\system
Thanks! I edited your post into the original post.
On March 28 2009 03:42 IH4t3z3rg wrote: please store this post in safe re-findable place as i had this problem some days ago and really got mad to find a solution ... solution which i couldn't find!
It's backed up on my hard drive, and you could find it by searching for hotkeys, remapping, or keycraft. There's also a version not written by me available on GG.net which I couldn't find originally as it was moved from the original location, so I figured it was lost.
I've had my own personal hotkeys for a good 6+ years now and I'd be totally lost without them. Granted I play less than a dozen times online in a years time. And ya I'm a pretty bad player. Without my hotkeys I'm really really bad tho.
Anywho without a big debacle as to whether this is cheating or not, there's a couple of things that should be noted about custom stat_txt.tbl strings. 1. For foreign language stat_txt.tbls simply add them by using the options tab in WinMPQ and changing the locale ID. This sometimes isn't so obvious. 2. Not all strings follow the same pattern. There are rules for different types of strings such as unit training, upgrades, research etc. Details here for those interested: http://www.staredit.net/wiki/TBLPad_Hotkey_String_Format
I have always attempted to utilize the left hand home keys for all of the mods I've worked on and I'm glad to see more modders are starting to put effort in doing the same. It just makes sense. As for competition, if you're one of those 1% of Starcraft players that is an aspiring "touring" pro, then ya forget about it. For the rest of the mortals, this is a great way to improve your all around mechanics/speed. Blizzard should have incorporated this into a patch. Glad to see it coming in SC2. Seems like a no-brainer to me.
God damn everywhere I go on the forum these days people are whinning and bitching about stupid shit.
Every RTS game SHOULD COME WITH CUSTOMIZABLE HOTKEYS. UBS flash cards could easily carry this information and gamers would be able to play a more personalized game.
Other then it being impractical at competitive lans there is no good excuse to not allow gamers to change their keys.
That is like C/S telling gamers they can't switch from W to E for forward ..
The only reason I never customized my hotkeys is because I believe zergs hotkeys are super easy as is.
I hope Blizzard will just make rebinding hotkeys a built-in option for SC2. If I were to make an FPS analogy, it would be people using esdf or asdf instead of the default wasd - I for one, don't care and don't blame players for wanting to customize their controls.
1. For foreign language stat_txt.tbls simply add them by using the options tab in WinMPQ and changing the locale ID. This sometimes isn't so obvious. 2. Not all strings follow the same pattern. There are rules for different types of strings such as unit training, upgrades, research etc. Details here for those interested: http://www.staredit.net/wiki/TBLPad_Hotkey_String_Format
Thanks! It might be good if you post what changes you made so people don't have to read through the file or go to the effort of doing it themselves. I edited your foreign language stuff in.
Here is some info in addition to the guide (feel free to add them to the OP) :
- if you get a list of files unknownblabla instead of the real names, get patch_rt.mpq.txt. In WinMPQ, go to options, then File lists, then Add File list with that file.
- There are several rez\stat_txt.tbl in the list, they correspond to different languages. Here are the locale IDs : 0 Neutral (English) 1031 German 1033 English 1034 Spanish 1036 French 1040 Italian 1046 Portugese Extract the one that fits the locale you want to change.
- If you want to change a different locale than English, before adding stat_txt.tbl back into the mpq, go to options and input the right one in the "Locale ID for adding files" field.
On March 28 2009 17:24 Catyoul wrote: Here is some info in addition to the guide (feel free to add them to the OP) :
- if you get a list of files unknownblabla instead of the real names, get patch_rt.mpq.txt. In WinMPQ, go to options, then File lists, then Add File list with that file.
- There are several rez\stat_txt.tbl in the list, they correspond to different languages. Here are the locale IDs : 0 Neutral (English) 1031 German 1033 English 1034 Spanish 1036 French 1040 Italian 1046 Portugese Extract the one that fits the locale you want to change.
- If you want to change a different locale than English, before adding stat_txt.tbl back into the mpq, go to options and input the right one in the "Locale ID for adding files" field.
Wow, great stuff! What's the difference between 1033 and 0? Are they merely aliases, and any changes made to one will affect the other, or what?
That unknowable files fix should help out someone who PMed me, as well.
Thanks! It might be good if you post what changes you made so people don't have to read through the file or go to the effort of doing it themselves.
Well this was done nearly 6 years ago and all of these keys are now second nature. I honestly don't know what the standard keys are anymore. However when I built these keys, they are all based around the lefthand homekeys and I spent a good deal of time making sure there were no conflicts and that they were representative of the unit. The strings have all been updated as well so that the hotkey is displayed in yellow when the cursor hovers over the button. I think I found one conflict once when I played a UMS game with the hero Kerrigan. I forgot that the infested Kerrigan can both cloak and consume. Maybe I fixed that tho dunno.
Offhand here are some things I know are different.+ Show Spoiler +
Marine Seige Mode
probes pylons
hydra lurker
things like that. I do know that I have 3 weird buttons too. Bunker (x) Patrol (q) and Hold (w) .. ya those are weird.
Alright thnx for the topic. I'm sure some purists will hate the idea of new hotkeys, while others will really enjoy their speed boost and start building their own.
It's very possible to just change your keyboard layout to have the exact same effect. And I'm pretty sure you could customize your keyboard to be however you wanted.
On March 28 2009 21:14 Vivi57 wrote: I really don't see how this could be banned.
It's very possible to just change your keyboard layout to have the exact same effect. And I'm pretty sure you could customize your keyboard to be however you wanted.
No you can't, this is an illegal mod that shouldn't be used. l o k i M
On March 28 2009 21:14 Vivi57 wrote: I really don't see how this could be banned.
It's very possible to just change your keyboard layout to have the exact same effect. And I'm pretty sure you could customize your keyboard to be however you wanted.
No you can't, this is an illegal mod that shouldn't be used. l o k i M
Yes you can. I can write or download a remapper program for my keyboard. Or i can get one of those keyboards that come with the program.
Different language keyboards also have different keys positioned.
On March 27 2009 23:58 Kwark wrote: Blizzard didn't deliberately try and rig all the different language versions so the hotkeys were equally intuitive on them all. It's not naturally balanced, some versions may be better than others. By allowing players to remap at will it'd remove that unfairness. That said, I'd only use it if it was built into the icc launcher so everyone had the option.
I agree with this.
A word on skill: In my opinion, hotkey setup is not an important part of SC skill.
If I made an analogy with running, having a bad hotkey setup would equal having a small stone inside your running shoes.
German shoes have a more unconfortable stone, english ones have a bit more pleasant one. And right now, the rules say you must have some sort of a stone in your shoes. Because, it's quite obvious that removing the shoe would give you an advantage over the others.
Does that mean we shouldn't allow everyone to use the shoes they want? You guessed it, it has to come from KeSPA.
Two friends can agree to race without the stones in their shoes. A school tourney can be agreed not to require stones in the participants shoes. But once you get to race a proffessional, who makes a living by running with an obligatory stone in his shoe, he will not be happy to hear that you don't have one in your shoe. So he will object. And you will have to use the stone against him. Now you will no longer want to race your friend without stones in your shoes, because, how on earth are you supposed to beat the proffessional one day, if you're training running a different way the entire time.
The house of cards collapses.
If KeSPA would allow this, in a month, everyone would use this. Until that happens, enjoy pointlessly debating.
On March 28 2009 21:14 Vivi57 wrote: I really don't see how this could be banned.
It's very possible to just change your keyboard layout to have the exact same effect. And I'm pretty sure you could customize your keyboard to be however you wanted.
No you can't, this is an illegal mod that shouldn't be used. l o k i M
Yes you can. I can write or download a remapper program for my keyboard. Or i can get one of those keyboards that come with the program.
Different language keyboards also have different keys positioned.
On March 28 2009 21:46 floor exercise wrote: I just tested keycraft and it still works for me. The only reason I could assume it doesn't work for others is vista maybe since it's so old now
Really? I tried it on XP, just switched building a pylon to 's' to test it out, and it actually broke my pylon hotkey, I had to manually click it. So I wanted to use the method in the OP to fix it =\
I really see nothing wrong with using things like this. I just think it needs to be more widespread before I actually use it myself.
On March 28 2009 22:28 niteReloaded wrote:
If KeSPA would allow this, in a month, everyone would use this. Until that happens, enjoy pointlessly debating.
On March 28 2009 21:33 haduken wrote: can people who call this cheating stfu please? your opinion alone doesn't make it cheating okay?
Its banned in every major tournament and you don't think its cheating? It gives an unfair advantage to whoever is using it. I can understand if everyone made it like the default english keyboard (which koreans use). They use the english hotkeys but to change things like saying 'o' is too far for build observer and changing it to 'b' is cheating.
On March 28 2009 21:33 haduken wrote: can people who call this cheating stfu please? your opinion alone doesn't make it cheating okay?
Its banned in every major tournament and you don't think its cheating? It gives an unfair advantage to whoever is using it. I can understand if everyone made it like the default english keyboard (which koreans use). They use the english hotkeys but to change things like saying 'o' is too far for build observer and changing it to 'b' is cheating.
Not everyone uses the same keyboard, so probably half the people you play cheat.
The fact that this thread is still open kind of says something about the general opinion about this 'cheat' on this website, eh??
On March 28 2009 21:33 haduken wrote: can people who call this cheating stfu please? your opinion alone doesn't make it cheating okay?
Its banned in every major tournament and you don't think its cheating? It gives an unfair advantage to whoever is using it. I can understand if everyone made it like the default english keyboard (which koreans use). They use the english hotkeys but to change things like saying 'o' is too far for build observer and changing it to 'b' is cheating.
Not everyone uses the same keyboard, so probably half the people you play cheat.
The fact that this thread is still open kind of says something about the general opinion about this 'cheat' on this website, eh??
Yeah. It says that people will go through all sorts of lengths to rationalize their need to cheat. First post sums it all up. L2P.
On March 28 2009 22:32 TaP.Nuada wrote: Really? I tried it on XP, just switched building a pylon to 's' to test it out, and it actually broke my pylon hotkey, I had to manually click it. So I wanted to use the method in the OP to fix it =\
back up your patch_rt and try this:
check keycraft.cfg to make sure rtpath goes right to your patch_rt (mine is rtpath=D:\Program Files\Starcraft\patch_rt.mpq)
And then ctrl f for "probe" and find Build Probe=pP the first letter is the hotkey, the second is the actual highlighted "P" in Probe that denotes P is the hotkey, you can change it to S as well and in bw it will say "Build Srobe" unfortunately. its your call.
after that save it and run Core.exe, it should say it wrote to patch_rt. Go in game and see if the change has been made
also make sure your patch_rt.mpq isnt read only or something
On March 28 2009 21:33 haduken wrote: can people who call this cheating stfu please? your opinion alone doesn't make it cheating okay?
Its banned in every major tournament and you don't think its cheating? It gives an unfair advantage to whoever is using it. I can understand if everyone made it like the default english keyboard (which koreans use). They use the english hotkeys but to change things like saying 'o' is too far for build observer and changing it to 'b' is cheating.
Not everyone uses the same keyboard, so probably half the people you play cheat.
The fact that this thread is still open kind of says something about the general opinion about this 'cheat' on this website, eh??
Its not about keyboard lol. Progamers all use some cheap generic kt-35.
It is clearly cheating and will continue to be cheating until sanctioned by organizations like WCG and Kespa. I'm happy that this feature will be in SC2 though, since it is a good feature. But that is no reason to cheat in brood war. Like what about using multi selection hacks in bw using the argument that it is a good feature that should be in every RTS and will be in SC2? =p. Sad that this isn't deleted imo.
It's cheating in competitive gaming, which will make it cheating in iccup. But bnet has no rules at all. You can gas stack, obs over turret all you want =P
Under 2 min. mark games: [...] admins are obligated to give him -100 points penalty for 1st offense and icnrease[sic] it by a factor of 100 for enxt[sic] ones (2nd -200 3rd -300 etc.).
I don't feel it's cheating. What if you move to a foreign country where they only sell keyboards with a different key setup? You would probably prefer to set hotkeys back to what they were. Also you can already do this in Windows by changing the keyboard layout to different languages.
4 International Gosu Protoss Players are playing a game. These guys are loyal purists who like most of us frown upon cheating and haxs. These particular players happen to be English, German, Spanish, and German. Now when these guys want to build probes from their Nexus, they hit hotkeys as follows:
English = p = p<1>Build <3>P<1>robe<0> German = a = a<1><3>A<1>dler bauen<0> Spanish = b = b<1>Construir <3>b<1>uitre<0> French = v = v<1>Construire <3>V<1>autour<0>
So the English player has a clear disadvantage over the other users in this situation. If reindexing hotkeys is considered cheating, then everyone and ALL languages should be using the same keys which they aren't.
PS : As far as I know, it's not explicitly forbidden in any big competition nor on iccup. I'm not talking about progaming obviously, the logistics of changing and checking what exactly is changed in their version of the patch_rt.mpq before each game is a bit too much, and they're already so trained on the current English hotkeys it would probably be a waste of time for them anyway.
Also, a couple of years ago, when Ashur brought Keycraft to the public, or when this guide was on gosugamers.net, there was no such outcry. As this comes up again every now and then, the reaction progressively becomes more and more outraged and extreme, as if there isn't even any matter for discussion about the subject. It's sad really, I feel the community is being less and less mature and more and more "old and cranky" in an "in my time we had to select all units one by one, and the hotkeys to build them all required a 3 keys combination" way. It's not a good way to go, it sort of reminds me of the color-blind thread in the SC2 forum.
On March 27 2009 20:03 Yaqoob wrote: This is banned in any competitive tournament so I find its pretty stupid and it gives an unfair advantage online.
Q: Can you be banned for cheating? A: By Blizzard? Maybe, but I've been using it for around 5 years and haven't been banned. If you do get banned, sorry, but it's not my problem and I will do absolutely nothing to help you about it. By competitions? In person, sure, you probably can't use it at something like WCG. Online, they have absolutely no way of knowing, so they can't really ban you for it.
Pretty sad imo
Is it also an unfair advantage if you use a different language version and hence have different hotkeys?
There is ONE BIG reason you shouldnt consider changing hotkeys as cheating:
EVERY other language distribution of scbw uses different hotkeys than the original english scbw.
I for example have to use such a foreign edition.
so what? is it imba by me or for me to HAVE TO use different keysets depending on which language distribution is installed on the comp im playing a game on?
furthermore, if i were a professional gamer, which thankfully i am not, i would consider it unfair would i have to use english scbw hotkeys when i played YEARS on different ones (my own language kit)
so stop it ppl, you dont REALLY want to go into the 'but he could start looking for a language version where the hotkeys are aranged better then english scbw' argument, do you?
hope that enlightens that this(having language-adjusted hotkeys[they did it for better memorizing imo]) is an intended feature by blizzard (before they knew scbw would develop into esports though)
On March 29 2009 06:35 Cheerio wrote: I wonder what the moderators' response to this thread will be...
Do you suppose that in two days no moderators have seen this thread?
On March 29 2009 02:37 MyLostTemple wrote: if i understand correctly all professional gamer tournaments require the english key setup.
You mean all Korean progamer events, right? Do all the Chinese players use alternate hotkeys such that it's not inconvenient for past events like China vs Korea showmatch, or what? How does that work for WCG, as people from Germany may, for instance, use German hotkeys at home?
News flash, you can customize hotkeys in Wc3/TFT and its just a simple text document edit you can make to the folder that blizz implemented. Nothing wrong with changing hotkeys stop being fags.
Aside from all the trolling, I don't think many would need/use this, IMO playing StarCraft for ~6 years I've had no problems with hotkeys, because when you've been playing for so long, the hotkeys come naturally, no point in changing them when you know them like the back of your hand.
On March 29 2009 02:06 Bajadulce wrote: .... English = p = p<1>Build <3>P<1>robe<0> German = a = a<1><3>A<1>dler bauen<0> Spanish = b = b<1>Construir <3>b<1>uitre<0> => fail Buitre= Vulture, Sonda=Probe French = v = v<1>Construire <3>V<1>autour<0> ....
I have read the thread and i came to this: high number of posters= its cheating because it gives you unfair advantage, hax, ban, gay etc. medium number of posters= its not cheating, because diff languages... etc, etc.
My oppinion: its cheating just because blizzard defines cheating as using third party programs that change the software, its just a problem of law wording/definition. Its not dishonest at all, and the main disscusion should be if it does give you an unfair advantage or not. And hell no.
Saying that its unfair because not all people know about this/cant access it => wrong, the fact that this guide is here is proof enough. If my opponent doesnt know about this its not my fault, thats like saying that its unfair that not all people know how to stop 2 gate with zerg or anykind of guided strat. Or its like saying that its unfair to glitch workers because not all people know or that its unfair that i can check my game with bwchart if my opponent doesnt know about it.
Saying that its unfair because you should play the game "as it is": already stated, the game is not "as it is" always, there are different languages and more importantly about hotkeys hardware can change the game legally. There are custom keyboards, i can remap my win keys (and that is no hack even in definition form), mouse speed/accuracy its not the same etc.
So im still waiting to see a logically stated post why is this an unfair advantage.
Lol you are comparing someone who has remapped to someone who could? And then conclude it's not unfair?
You need to compare someone who has remapped to someone who hasn't. Saying they could both do the same thing, which we are trying to find out is cheating and unfair or not, and thus it's not unfair because there is no advantage is so odd. Obviously if both do the same thing theres no difference. What's then is the point in the argument? What are you even comparing? Nothing.
If both do the same thing then there is never an advantage. So you can never cheat.
Keyboards and equipment are already different in general. Using only english keyboards in tournys is unfair for those who practice on other keyboards in other countries. Other e-sports has this feature and the only reason bw hasn't is probably because it wasn't though of by then. If you think its cheat don't use it, but blindly saying its gay or whatever without taking these things into consideration is wierd.
If there is a mouse that is absolutely best for playing bw would it be cheating using it because some people might not know about it? or can afford it?
It's not like you have to do less actions. You just have other equipment.
On March 29 2009 02:06 Bajadulce wrote: .... English = p = p<1>Build <3>P<1>robe<0> German = a = a<1><3>A<1>dler bauen<0> Spanish = b = b<1>Construir <3>b<1>uitre<0> => fail Buitre= Vulture, Sonda=Probe French = v = v<1>Construire <3>V<1>autour<0> ....
OOPS. Hey, "S" is even better! You Damn Spanish Cheaters! Play the game the way its supposed to be played! "P" for probes!
Lol @ people arguing this isn't cheating because "it gives me an advantage, it's just not a big one." Fucking sad.
Seeing as every single person who legitimately owns Brood War can download an English version from Battle.net, your argument of "but my version is different" is thrown completely out the window. You want to play with a modified keyboard, you might as well play with any other hack.
On March 30 2009 04:36 FaZ- wrote: Lol @ people arguing this isn't cheating because "it gives me an advantage, it's just not a big one." Fucking sad.
Seeing as every single person who legitimately owns Brood War can download an English version from Battle.net, your argument of "but my version is different" is thrown completely out the window. You want to play with a modified keyboard, you might as well play with any other hack.
It gives you an advantage, yes. But not more than for example those who have better mouses or keyboards. This should be put in the same category as equipment-advantage, it will help you improve your play but you still have to do everything anyone has to do to win a game.
Sure everyone can download the english version, but they dont. In the perfect bw-world everyone should use the same language, same equipment and same hotkeys.
For example; I see alot of players(for example boxer) take away some keys from their keyboard that they dont need for playing broodwar. This will make it easier for you not to misclick.
by the way, even if you do have one of those "AZERTY" or wahtever keyboards, you can tinker around the windows language settings, and set it to be like a qwerty board. Yes, it might take some time getting used to, but its not that important in starcraft. Since if you need to look at your keyboard when you play starcraft... Well, you shoild just learn to not do that
And you can download the english starcraft version for free.
On March 30 2009 10:51 MuR)Ernu wrote: by the way, even if you do have one of those "AZERTY" or wahtever keyboards, you can tinker around the windows language settings, and set it to be like a qwerty board.
But that would be cheating. If you get an AZERTY keyboard you should learn to use it like its meant to be used!
Scroll down until you find rez\stat_txt.tbl. This file contains hotkeys and tooltips for all things in Starcraft. It is what you will be modifying. You might notice that there are a whole bunch of them. They are different languages. English is (at least for me, and probably for you) the first one. Right click it, and extract to somewhere where you will be able to find it.
For me the patch_rt.mpq file, when opened in WinMPQ showed only "Uknown" for all the file names.
When I looked at the file BrooDat.mpq in WinMPQ I found the rez\stat_txt.tbl files you were talking about. Are these the correct files to modify?
to solve the whole, whether or not this is cheating thing, we should just make it so that players can only use their mouse to play. that would solve everything imo, i don't think its cheatin simply because some ppl have different keyboards and games
It can't make new control groups right (so instead of 1a2a3a it would be SaDaFa or something). That would make it cheating for sure. Until then, I'm fine with people changing up unit build hotkeys and such.
On March 30 2009 10:51 MuR)Ernu wrote: by the way, even if you do have one of those "AZERTY" or wahtever keyboards, you can tinker around the windows language settings, and set it to be like a qwerty board.
But that would be cheating. If you get an AZERTY keyboard you should learn to use it like its meant to be used!
You have no idea what kind of a pain that would be, 1 = & and 2 = é etc so you can't just use control groups. It's really annoying and almost impossible to play decently.
On March 30 2009 22:17 VoriuM wrote:You have no idea what kind of a pain that would be, 1 = & and 2 = é etc so you can't just use control groups. It's really annoying and almost impossible to play decently.
Don't forget the StormPlugin in ChaosLauncher takes care of that now.
i dont find anything to be wrong with the default english hotkeys but like people said before all the other language versions have different hotkeys and its not considered hacking.
It's pretty sad to see some of these posts. The for/against ones, that is.
The simplicity of it is this:
*Those who have non-English hotkeys should be able to make them match English ones, to make it fair.
*Yes, it's technically cheating, and gives a small but significant advantage (especially for non-pros), but only when not matching the opponent's (or the normal) key-set.
*If allowed, then it would likely be near impossible to stop others from using it differently.
The only way I could see this as being allowed in official settings is if it was somehow controlled through ICCup or whatnot officially so that you could only set keys to different language sets. It's very true that different keyboards etc (especially things like dvorak) can have a significant impact on play as well, so that alone should validate language mapping. Mapping for further convenience is definitely cheating, though I wouldn't be against it in casual matches, which are for fun, and it would advocate that without a noticeable difference.
The best solution to this would likely be to just consider it not cheating under official settings (I don't mean bnet), and let people have their way with it, and also put it in with ICCup files. It will be in SC2 because it is a good feature that many games have, and so should SC1 inherently. But it doesn't. It also doesn't have upward ramps and such, but it should. Those are allowed because they encourage fairness. The more customization, the better, as long as it's still the same number of keys and everyone knows about it and can use it. The point is to make the game more accessible without unnecessary things standing in the way, like large key distances.
On March 31 2009 01:16 Piste wrote: Oh shit please make this to not work on iccup.... please!
yeah, im sure python_max will invest a shitload of time to prevent such a minor threat, haha.
I was talking to the creator of this tool -_-
sry piste you quite dont get it:
pianoman didnt create any 'tool':
he just pointed out a method many modders use to give new names to units (and altering the hotkeys, cuz if you only put in names without proper tags in stat_txt.tbl then the unit will have NO hotkeys)
there is no tool used here and there isnt any altering of code involved in the process, its only the gamedata scbw reads from and processes that is changed, there is NO memory editing at work, NO runtime third-party-program as well! only some ascii chars within a text file (an arrayed non-plain-text file which contains plain-text strings to be more precise) are changed.
so pianoman has no means of making this METHOD (not tool) not work with iCCup
in fact its nothing other than a creation of your own minilocalisation of scbw to your own wierd language
i could rename zerglings to lovebombers (in red color) for example (just to point out whats happening here)
as long as only the stat_txt.tbl is involved and only strings are changed, none deleted, there is no game system changing involved
its only a human-interface-change (something maphacks for example are not since they alter the amount of information the abuser gets, which isnt the case here at all)
btw i dont use this, would cause too much relearning from my language-specific hotkeys which i used for years now, but i think its valid
Whatever. Just make it so that offline tournaments require the english keyset. Then everyone would use english keys anyway, except some people who dont care enough.
On March 31 2009 16:24 MuR)Ernu wrote: Whatever. Just make it so that offline tournaments require the english keyset. Then everyone would use english keys anyway, except some people who dont care enough
or just allow it on offline tournaments? Then everyone would change their hotkeys anyway, except some whiners who realize that they invested time in learning the weird hotkeys which new players didnt need to. OH WAIT, there are like no new players, therefor ppl who change their keyset learned the same bullshit, but dont cry about it. if all make their keys custom, all can have the "perfect" layout and its all fair again. if you say all have to use english its not fair because ppl who dont use eng keyset have to relearn the english keys.
bwplayers remind me a lot of pensioners, they just cant accept changes. at first everything is bad and should be banned. just dont ever dare to touch their beloved game.
I just remapped the entire Zerg race on a grid according to the button placement when you have something selected.
Q W E A S D Z X C
So buying plague for a Defiler is Q (top left on Defiler Mound) but casting it is X (bottom center on a Defiler).
This is pretty amazing as it helps me memorize hotkeys much easier and my hand never has to leave the left side of the keyboard. I'm binding my Hatcheries to my G2-6 keys on my G15 keyboard and units to 1-6. APM efficiency++++++
If there are any dvorak users who want to use this to rebind their hotkeys to defaults without having to change keyboard layout, PM me. I am working on this but it needs testing.
To what degree will StarCraft II allow for remapping - limited remapping a la Warcraft III, or complete remapping of key bindings?
We are planning to support key-mapping for StarCraft II. The extent of the ability for remapping keys is still to be determined. Even in current experimentations, we have found that there are often many issues with conflicting key bindings as there are very few open unmapped keys to be swapped in and out.
Omg. I'm really angry. At some of you. Especially Mur)Ernu. First : Starcraft is an old game (like 10 years ? Or 11 ?) so blizzard didn't think about remapping hotkeys. They did it for Warcraft 3 though. Second : I believe the game is too old now for blizzard to consider making it now. I'm 100% certain they'd not mind if it was created. Third : Is there a game beside Starcraft where we can't change our key settings ? Pretty rare i'd guess. Fourth : As a lot of tl members mentionned, i fail to understand why it shouldn't be allowed in online / offline competitions. Simply because of the differents languages versions. Why do you think i've downloaded the starcraft game in english ? Cauz the french's customization tilts me to no end. Did the french's lans banned me because of this ? No. Hell half of the players got theirs in english aswell. Why not indian or russian (assuming they would be easier, dunno if they are or not) ? Simply cauz it was the most known setting and it'd have been hard to find the others language back in theses days. But if they did know about that they'd have changed it for sure. Fifth : Pretty sure aswell that iccup would allow this. Sure it's a hack but a very very reasonable one. Afterall every rts games are using it. It isn't in starcraft simply because it's a very old game that blizzard wouldn't give it a try. I'd not mind at all if iccup players are using it, even less if iccup put a link to this remapping key's site. It's truly right to have their key customized in order to play more competitively.
Mur)Ernu : Am i asking you to play with the exact same hardware as mine ? No. So stop crying.
ne1 that thinks remapping hotkeys is cheating...is just fucking retarded. Blizz has some dumb hotkey setups...and in NEWER games THEY LET YOU remap ur hotkeys...almost ALL NEW GAMES. comparing remmaping hotkeys to maphacking is just wow....juuuuuust wow.
how can u call fixing hotkeys hacking...when its going to be a part of SC2 lol...the only reason its not a part of BW is cuz it was made in fucking 1998.
ne1 that thinks multiple selection hack is cheating...is just fucking retarded. Blizz has some dumb selection limitations and just let u select 12 at a time and in NEWER games THEY LET YOU select as many u want...almost ALL NEW GAMES. comparing selection hack to maphacking is just wow....juuuuuust wow.
how can u call selection-hack hacking...when its going to be a part of SC2 lol...the only reason its not a part of BW is cuz it was made in fucking 1998.
On April 07 2009 19:50 Supah wrote: ne1 that thinks multiple selection hack is cheating...is just fucking retarded. Blizz has some dumb selection limitations and just let u select 12 at a time and in NEWER games THEY LET YOU select as many u want...almost ALL NEW GAMES. comparing selection hack to maphacking is just wow....juuuuuust wow.
how can u call selection-hack hacking...when its going to be a part of SC2 lol...the only reason its not a part of BW is cuz it was made in fucking 1998.
Problem with that argument is someone using different hotkeys has to press the same amount of keys, they are just placed differently, while someone using a multi selection hack is way less limited in lots of areas of the game.
I use for years and i caan' accept people say its cheating.
First of all , what a bout people having a lot of money and can use a wonderfulvery expensive keyboard and mouse whereas some others plays with crap huge keyboard and slow mouseball? Not to mentions : some very good keyboard can make "macros" wich allows player to execute several hiotkeys with 1 buttons , like for a protoss user in tvp end game :presses 1 key that will execute : f3 ( army location - combatzone)1a2a3a 4z 6 z 7z 8 g 9g 0 nexus...thats not a 3rd party program and still it can give an huge advantage for someplayers , especiallfor thos who have bad multitasking or are too lazy to improve at it.
What about the differents languages versions in starcraft? Some versions are maybe easier to play with some races.
also for thoses only claming that the onlly fact thats its a 3rd party program makes keycraft cheating i answer : people using chaos launcher and can seee many info with the replay thing can improve a litle litle bit than others , and because its a 3rd party program , it is cheating. because it gave you more info about the game than you are suposed to be allowed to know without chaos.
Also my personnal case : i learnt on english versionin cybercafe years ago then when i had my own computer i had only french version available so it came that i had english version automatism plus new automatism with french version. The whole thing bugged me a lot and my multitask was really crap. So i had the opportunity to creat my own mix of french/english version i did it.
also koreans use a third party program that is called tv and has 24/24 starcraft videos of pros and advices in their own language. Is this cheating? no
On April 07 2009 20:43 axel wrote:also koreans use a third party program that is called tv and has 24/24 starcraft videos of pros and advices in their own language. Is this cheating? no
You have got to be kidding. How can you even think that anyone would think that Koreans having OGN/MBC and that its giving them an unfair advantage. This program is cheating and its not allowed on ICCup. Think what you want but you totally make your argument stupid when you add in the last part and try to compare remapping hotkeys with koreans having starcraft channels lol
On April 07 2009 12:30 RaiZ wrote: Omg. I'm really angry. At some of you. Especially Mur)Ernu. First : Starcraft is an old game (like 10 years ? Or 11 ?) so blizzard didn't think about remapping hotkeys. They did it for Warcraft 3 though. Second : I believe the game is too old now for blizzard to consider making it now. I'm 100% certain they'd not mind if it was created. Third : Is there a game beside Starcraft where we can't change our key settings ? Pretty rare i'd guess. Fourth : As a lot of tl members mentionned, i fail to understand why it shouldn't be allowed in online / offline competitions. Simply because of the differents languages versions. Why do you think i've downloaded the starcraft game in english ? Cauz the french's customization tilts me to no end. Did the french's lans banned me because of this ? No. Hell half of the players got theirs in english aswell. Why not indian or russian (assuming they would be easier, dunno if they are or not) ? Simply cauz it was the most known setting and it'd have been hard to find the others language back in theses days. But if they did know about that they'd have changed it for sure. Fifth : Pretty sure aswell that iccup would allow this. Sure it's a hack but a very very reasonable one. Afterall every rts games are using it. It isn't in starcraft simply because it's a very old game that blizzard wouldn't give it a try. I'd not mind at all if iccup players are using it, even less if iccup put a link to this remapping key's site. It's truly right to have their key customized in order to play more competitively.
Mur)Ernu : Am i asking you to play with the exact same hardware as mine ? No. So stop crying.
Having different hardware isn't bad.
But having like a keyboard which is VEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERY different (those don't exist really).
Someone here made his hotkeys be like 1-6 and "g1-6" (i assume the g keys are nearer than 7-0).
Is that cheating? Yes.
But is using that keyboard without all that fancy shit, no.
Of course having different hardware isn't cheating.
Being a better player would be cheating in that sense.
Overall, i don't really care, but i'd prefer everyone to play with the english version.
Why does remapping keys really matter? Yes, it gives someone an advantage, but its been considered negligible in a vast majority of later RTS which favored customizability over rigid rules. You guys can complain all you want, but its the truth. While blizzard may not have thought of key re-mapping 11 years ago, that does not mean they haven't thought of it now.
Dictionary.com on cheating To violate rules deliberately, as in a game
iCCup 2.1. It is forbidden to use any software that is likely to give you advantage over other players (Map Hack, Drop Hack, etc.)
iCCup has banned it, and if you're playing there using the program, you are cheating. I personally don't have any problem with it and would gladly accept the introduction of remappable hotkeys for all, but anyone who is playing there is very clearly breaking the rules.
The gray area appears when people use the program solely to remap their keys to put themselves on even footing due to foreign hotkeys or a Dvorak keyboard. However, because the program is clearly categorized under "likely to give you advantage," using the program is breaking the rules. To use the program to normalize your hotkeys to the standard is purely acceptable on principle, and not at all dishonest, but it is still cheating unless iCCup decides to change the rules.
No one's going to look down on you for changing your hotkeys to that of the normal SC keys. Just bear in mind that you are technically cheating.
On April 07 2009 14:25 DamageControL wrote: blah blah blah posting because its fun to make fun of pianoman
D a m a g e C o n t r o l
While it's doubtless fun to post merely to inflate your post count, I'd suggest not posting in a thread unless you have at least a modicum of content to add. While I disagree with those arguing that this is cheating (and yes I've read their posts, I just choose not to get involved in arguing with them), they are at least contributing content to the topic. You are merely trying to mock me for some unknown reason. I don't even know who you are, and you don't know who I am either. </superiorwolf>
On April 07 2009 20:53 Yaqoob wrote: This program is cheating and its not allowed on ICCup.
On March 31 2009 07:15 Piste wrote: I was talking to the creator of this tool -_-
It's not a tool really, as there are a couple of programs involved in it, and when you run StarCraft you are just running StarCraft--you don't run any other programs, you don't run anything to dynamically modify StarCraft each time. In fact, it's rather annoying switching between standard and modified hotkeys after you've done this, as you need to continually rename patch_rt.mpqs to do so between runs.
iCCup 2.1. It is forbidden to use any software that is likely to give you advantage over other players (Map Hack, Drop Hack, etc.)
iCCup has banned it, and if you're playing there using the program, you are cheating. I personally don't have any problem with it and would gladly accept the introduction of remappable hotkeys for all, but anyone who is playing there is very clearly breaking the rules.
First of all, those are all different categories as they are hacks which actively read and modify StarCraft memory while running. This merely modifies some strings which are read by the configuration. (Note that I do not contend your charge that ICCup's rule there bans it--it most likely does, although this will not actually stop me from playing ICCup with modified hotkeys, regardless. Similarly, I use the latency changer hack which only affects me when I play public games on Battle.net. These people do not have Chaos, nor are they likely to get it, but for someone like me used to playing with low latency, it is nearly unplayable to continually switch between the two.)
More importantly (and why I actually am responding to you) I see no reason why this is in fact not accessible for all? The method is clearly publicized here--there is no reason why it could not be translated into Korean if necessary (although not by me, as I'm afraid I do not speak Korean) and used by ICCup. You can hardly say it's not accessible to the user because it does not come with BW--neither does ICCup. ICCup already violates Blizzard's TOU by existing, and their server means people who have pirated the game and do not have valid CD keys can play anyway, so I hardly think they would be concerned about Blizzard going after them over this. Note that I am not suggesting ICCup do this, but there is nothing about this which is not accessible for all.
Reading over my post above, I'm not super content with how it came out, but I suppose my point is discernible regardless. Hopefully I didn't sound too much like scumbags such as Dino.
On April 07 2009 22:36 PianoMan wrote: Note that I do not contend your charge that ICCup's rule there bans it--it most likely does, although this will not actually stop me from playing ICCup with modified hotkeys, regardless.
If iCCup has banned it and you play on iCCup with it, you are cheating. It's as simple as that.
Is it wrong on principle to remap your hotkeys? Maybe, maybe not - that's not the issue. The issue is that you are willfully breaking the rules, which is the very definition of cheating. This isn't a judgment of your character and you may feel like you are doing the right thing anyways, in which case go for it, but know that you are 100% cheating when you do it.
On April 07 2009 22:36 PianoMan wrote:Note that I do not contend your charge that ICCup's rule there bans it--it most likely does, although this will not actually stop me from playing ICCup with modified hotkeys, regardless.
If iCCup has banned it and you play on iCCup with it, you are cheating. It's as simple as that.
Yah, I don't get whats wrong with PianoMan. I understand he doesn't think its cheating but openly admits to breaking ICCup rules and using programs that ICCup doesn't allow and that ICCup considers cheating/illegal. "I know its illegal and banned on ICCup but since they have no way of finding out then I'm going to use this program to alter my hotkeys and go play on ICCup."
Ever use Chaos Launcher? Yes? Then you broke Battle.net's rules too. I don't personally find much of a difference between the two cases (I am aware that modified hotkeys only affect a single person, yes). Both enhance play, both can be used by both parties (although hotkeys do not force you to have both parties use it, which is really the only difference), both break rules which were not truly designed to combat the programs/methods in question.
To Yaqoob: Well, I wouldn't judge him too harshly. He honestly thinks he's doing the right thing and just put a large amount of effort into trying to help the community, albeit misguidedly.
To Rainman: The only way to use this tool legitimately is to get the iCCup rules changed. You'd be spending your time better petitioning the iCCup admins and ask them to make an exception for this program than arguing here. Even though it would have a (very) low chance of success, you would at least be able to build an argument as currently your case begins and ends with the fact that using your program is the very definition of cheating.
Ever heard of ICCup? It breaks the rules of blizzard of having a private Starcraft Server and blizzard is well aware of ICCup but allows it. I don't understand your comparisons here. If you play on ICCup with this hotkey changing program then you are cheating. Why play on a ladder if you are not going to follow their rules?
ChaosLauncher does not provide an advantage to one player and therefore does not break the rules of iCCup, where the games are taking place.
Your program most certainly can, and what's worse, it can do so with only one of the players knowing. That not only breaks the rules but is iffy on principle. Your program is an illegitimate method of gaining an advantage over another player. That is cheating.
No one gets an advantage playing with lan latency with chaos launcher since you can only play with it if both of you are using the program unlike your hotkey changer.
On April 07 2009 19:50 Supah wrote: ne1 that thinks multiple selection hack is cheating...is just fucking retarded. Blizz has some dumb selection limitations and just let u select 12 at a time and in NEWER games THEY LET YOU select as many u want...almost ALL NEW GAMES. comparing selection hack to maphacking is just wow....juuuuuust wow.
how can u call selection-hack hacking...when its going to be a part of SC2 lol...the only reason its not a part of BW is cuz it was made in fucking 1998.
Problem with that argument is someone using different hotkeys has to press the same amount of keys, they are just placed differently, while someone using a multi selection hack is way less limited in lots of areas of the game.
That is true, a multicomand hack gives you a way greater edge than a more effective hotkey setup. But both is still using a third party program to give yourself an advantage. Allowing one type of cheating because there exists another type of cheating that is more effective makes no sense to me.
On April 07 2009 23:01 Tianx wrote: ChaosLauncher does not provide an advantage to one player and therefore does not break the rules of iCCup, where the games are taking place.
Your program most certainly can, and what's worse, it can do so with only one of the players knowing. That not only breaks the rules but is iffy on principle. Your program is an illegitimate method of gaining an advantage over another player. That is cheating.
The ICCUP rules say no programs can be run, which is fine and dandy but nothing is running when you play the game. This is a simplified text editor.
Hotkeys are a preference. If you're used to playing with the default layout than editing this text file will make you play worse. Trying to compare this to maphacks and drophacks referenced in the ICCUP rules is silly.
You can emulate this with hardware as well by playing on a G15 keyboard or a Nostromo Speedpad. They provide the exact same "advantage" and there's even less ways to detect them.
You are correct in saying that we are all breaking the rules set by Battle.net and Blizzard when we choose to play on iCCup. That means we would be subject to their punishments for violating the rules if they so chose to enforce them. However, they do not, as iCCup is a good thing from their perspective. iCCup is illegal as you say, but it continues to exist because it is beneficial from Blizzard's perspective. But while you are right in saying that iCCup is illegitimate, it does not justify the use of your programs.
The key difference between iCCup's existence breaking Blizzard's rules and your program breaking iCCup's rules is that iCCup chooses to enforce their rules and would certainly crack down on your program if they were able. The fact that your program is undetectable does not make it legitimate. You are willfully going against the intentions of the admins and are not only cheating but are wrong on principle.
On April 07 2009 23:13 Tianx wrote: You are correct in saying that we are all breaking the rules set by Battle.net and Blizzard when we choose to play on iCCup. That means we would be subject to their punishments for violating the rules if they so chose to enforce them. However, they do not, as iCCup is a good thing from their perspective. iCCup is illegal as you say, but it continues to exist because it is beneficial from Blizzard's perspective. But while you are right in saying that iCCup is illegitimate, it does not justify the use of your programs.
The key difference between iCCup's existence breaking Blizzard's rules and your program breaking iCCup's rules is that iCCup chooses to enforce their rules and would certainly crack down on your program if they were able. The fact that your program is undetectable does not make it legitimate. You are willfully going against the intentions of the admins and are not only cheating but are wrong on principle.
Do you consider G15 keyboards or Nostromo Speedpads unfair? They do the exact same thing as what's done with this text editing method (altering the player's command input) but the process is done on the hardware level instead of software level. You can't detect those either.
Oh, I forgot about my mouse. I use a Logitech G5 which allows you to bind the mouse wheel tilt to keyboard keys. Is this unfair?
No kidding. Can you tell me what software I'm using that qualifies? I'm not running anything while I play Starcraft. I could delete the text editor the OP references and nothing would change.
On April 07 2009 21:26 ghermination wrote: Why does remapping keys really matter? Yes, it gives someone an advantage, but its been considered negligible in a vast majority of later RTS which favored customizability over rigid rules. You guys can complain all you want, but its the truth. While blizzard may not have thought of key re-mapping 11 years ago, that does not mean they haven't thought of it now.
I'm more on this side of the argument, I don't really give a shit because it doesn't change all that much, it's just preference on what you feel comfortable with, core play is hardly changed obviously changing your hotkeys isn't going to help THAT much. Just look at WC3 for examples of that, some people use default while others use custom at pro level, doesn't change who wins 99999999/100000000 times.
If you want to complain this is cheating go for it since it wasn't in SC at the time, but it's gonna be in SC2 so hopefully you people don't continue complaining.
On April 07 2009 23:23 w e l p wrote: No kidding. Can you tell me what software I'm using that qualifies? I'm not running anything while I play Starcraft. I could delete the text editor the OP references and nothing would change.
Cheating is an incredibly simple concept. If you break the rules, you are cheating - if you haven't, you are not. Of course, that is not to say you can't play dirty within the rules or stay fair while breaking them.
If it's not against the rules it is by definition not cheating. While your hardware effectively achieves the same thing, and may be against the general gaming spirit, you have not broken the rules and are thus in the clear by the rules, although perhaps not by your peers.
And we go back to the question of "What rule am I breaking?"
There are no third party programs running on my computer or even installed while I play Starcraft. You could do what is done with the text editor mentioned in the OP using nothing on your hard drive but Windows, Starcraft+BW and the ChaosLauncher using the pre-installed Wordpad. Although it would be a much more arduous process.
edit: You could also do this by editing your registry to change your keyboard layout. With that method not a single piece of non Starcraft/ICCUP related software would ever exist on your computer.
I feel pretty awesome, just cheaterized my keybinds and bound everything into one button. Won't even need to push that 1a2a junk anymore I can just mash one button from now on. What? Do something.
i suggest iccup launcher will do a check everytime you launch bw. It would check the hotkey file and make sure its english. If not, it will say a big fuck you and replace with the real one.
On April 08 2009 07:09 MuR)Ernu wrote: i suggest iccup launcher will do a check everytime you launch bw. It would check the hotkey file and make sure its english. If not, it will say a big fuck you and replace with the real one.
M u R ) E r n u
I suggest not, because then people who use dvorak keyboard layout or non-english keyboards could never play iccup.
There is only one way to prevent this on iccup and that would mean an auto download of a clean patch_rt.mpq file and replace your modified one each time you launch starcraft. Which would mean you would have to specify which language version you are using so that you could get the right file.
Also, for those who are worried about having to do the steps everytime they change computer on lans ie. Just put the modified path_rt.mpq on an USB or mail it to yourself and replace the already existing one on the computer with your own modded (you will find the patch_rt.mpq in your starcraft folder).
I just want to inform those who are so damn anti remapping, it doesen't make you play better at all, I have played on lans both with and without my hotkeys and it doesen't make any difference at all. It's just more comfortable to press "s" instead of "p" when building a probe.
But as you are already so convinced you are 100% right you would never try to change the hotkeys and you would never experience what it is like, thus you really dont have any saying in this at all. Because believe me, it doesen't make you play any better it just makes you play more comfortable. Like having formable insides in the skates which follows your own foot rather than some standardized which would only fit 50% of all the players. It doesen't make you preform any better, but it's sure more comfortable for you to wear and to skate with.
YOU ARE SO FUCKING IGNORANT OF THE FACT THAT THERE IS NO PROGRAM/SOFTWARE INVOLVED WITH IT, NEITHER IS DYNAMICALLY CHANGING OF GAME DATA, ITS JUST SOME TEXT STRINGS WHICH ARE ALTERED BEFORE SCBW IS RUN, THERE ISNT ANY SOFTWARE/PROGRAM/TOOL BESIDES SCBW INVOLVED HERE
sry for the caps, but i needed to write this in this way, else those posters above will continue this 'software/program/tool' shit on and on.
I didn't read this thread at all, but i have a tip to change hotkeys WITH KEYCRAFT. OK, so you need starcraft in english and broodwar in french (maybe it works with other languages but i just tried in french). 1) Install starcraft original in english 2) Install broodwar in french 3) Upgrade to 1.16.1 4) Open keycraft, load your config file, then patch it 5) "Broodwar succesfully patched"
if i dont change the files in starcraft but instead spend a lot of money for a fancy keyboard that allows me to swap its keys around, would that be any different?
On September 01 2009 13:20 pzea469 wrote: Can someone who is against custom keys tell me...
if i dont change the files in starcraft but instead spend a lot of money for a fancy keyboard that allows me to swap its keys around, would that be any different?
I agree.
Don't progamers have customized keyboards?
Sometimes I watch Bisu and I think there's no way he's using standard mouse / keybaord due to his multitasking.
EPT![[image loading]](http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/823/image7224.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/2267/patchrtmpq.th.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://img141.imageshack.us/img141/790/tblpad.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://img301.imageshack.us/img301/2267/patchrtmpq.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/8999/addmpq.th.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/3065/ggobserver.png)
![[image loading]](http://img259.imageshack.us/img259/8999/addmpq.jpg)
!
but if blizzard made a patch to allow this everything would be fine... Just the fact that some people have it and some people don't makes it unfair, clear and simple.
