• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 06:40
CEST 12:40
KST 19:40
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
Code S RO8 Preview: herO, Zoun, Bunny, Classic7Code S RO8 Preview: Rogue, GuMiho, Solar, Maru3BGE Stara Zagora 2025: Info & Preview27Code S RO12 Preview: GuMiho, Bunny, SHIN, ByuN3The Memories We Share - Facing the Final(?) GSL47
Community News
BGE Stara Zagora 2025 - Replay Pack2Weekly Cups (June 2-8): herO doubles down1[BSL20] ProLeague: Bracket Stage & Dates9GSL Ro4 and Finals moved to Sunday June 15th13Weekly Cups (May 27-June 1): ByuN goes back-to-back0
StarCraft 2
General
Code S RO8 Preview: herO, Zoun, Bunny, Classic The SCII GOAT: A statistical Evaluation Jim claims he and Firefly were involved in match-fixing DreamHack Dallas 2025 - Official Replay Pack BGE Stara Zagora 2025 - Replay Pack
Tourneys
[GSL 2025] Code S: Season 2 - Ro8 - Group B [GSL 2025] Code S: Season 2 - Ro8 - Group A RSL: Revival, a new crowdfunded tournament series SOOPer7s Showmatches 2025 Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament
Strategy
[G] Darkgrid Layout Simple Questions Simple Answers [G] PvT Cheese: 13 Gate Proxy Robo
Custom Maps
[UMS] Zillion Zerglings
External Content
Mutation # 477 Slow and Steady Mutation # 476 Charnel House Mutation # 475 Hard Target Mutation # 474 Futile Resistance
Brood War
General
FlaSh Witnesses SCV Pull Off the Impossible vs Shu BW General Discussion BGH auto balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/ StarCraft & BroodWar Campaign Speedrun Quest Will foreigners ever be able to challenge Koreans?
Tourneys
[BSL20] GosuLeague RO16 - Tue & Wed 20:00+CET [ASL19] Grand Finals NA Team League 6/8/2025 [Megathread] Daily Proleagues
Strategy
I am doing this better than progamers do. [G] How to get started on ladder as a new Z player
Other Games
General Games
Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Nintendo Switch Thread Beyond All Reason Path of Exile What do you want from future RTS games?
Dota 2
Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion
League of Legends
Heroes of the Storm
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Heroes of StarCraft mini-set
TL Mafia
TL Mafia Community Thread Vanilla Mini Mafia
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread UK Politics Mega-thread Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine Russo-Ukrainian War Thread Vape Nation Thread
Fan Clubs
Maru Fan Club Serral Fan Club
Media & Entertainment
Korean Music Discussion [Manga] One Piece
Sports
2024 - 2025 Football Thread Formula 1 Discussion NHL Playoffs 2024
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread
TL Community
The Automated Ban List
Blogs
A Better Routine For Progame…
TrAiDoS
StarCraft improvement
iopq
Heero Yuy & the Tax…
KrillinFromwales
I was completely wrong ab…
jameswatts
Need Your Help/Advice
Glider
Trip to the Zoo
micronesia
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 27669 users

[H] Hotkeying a bunch of units quickly.

Forum Index > Brood War Strategy
Post a Reply
1 2 3 Next All
Noah
Profile Joined June 2008
Norway164 Posts
January 11 2010 14:52 GMT
#1
Right now my major problem in Starcraft is that I never seem to have time to hotkeying my units properly. Even though my build and my macro is starting to become decent I never seem to be able to do anything with my units because I can never manage to hotkey them in time. It isn't that hard early game when you only have a few facts or raxes producing, but when you start to get 6+ pumping units all the time I get these huge clumps of ungrouped units at my rally point and it takes forever to hotkey them properly.

I remember seeing a FPvod of someone showing how to properly group units at your rally point but I can't find it anywhere and I can't remember the name.

Does anyone have any good tips or know which FPvod I am talking about?
Necosarius
Profile Blog Joined September 2009
Sweden4042 Posts
January 11 2010 14:57 GMT
#2
Select a bunch of units and click shift+# and they will be added to the group. For example, you've got 4 marines on hotkey 1, you select 8 (or more) marines and press shift+1 and 8 marines will be added to group 1.
Amber[LighT]
Profile Blog Joined June 2005
United States5078 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-01-11 15:07:40
January 11 2010 15:00 GMT
#3
I mean just from viewing youtube you can find a number of hotkey related videos with a simple search.

This might help even if it's not what you're looking for:

<actually after watching this video this may not be helpful at all..>

Hotkeying is all about practice. There aren't any real tips other than making sure your hotkeys feel comfortable to you. For instance if you're Terran (I'm assuming this bc of your icon) you would probably want your factory always hotkeyed at 5... so 5t isn't too much of a strain. Not a Terran expert so I can't really give you advice without risking scrutiny 5 posts later
"We have unfinished business, I and he."
Noah
Profile Joined June 2008
Norway164 Posts
January 11 2010 15:11 GMT
#4
Necosarius I know how to hotkey units, I'm just not doing it fast enough and it feels like I'm not using the right technique because I haven't really improved in it.

Amber I'm not talking about hotkeying factories, as I said my macro is actually quite decent for my level. The problem comes when I have to hotkey the units at my rally point quickly when I have tons of units sitting there.

My TvP games usually ends up in mid/late game as I've learned how to micro to survive most of what my P friend throws at me while taking my natural. I try to push out at 2/1 or if I see him doing a quick expansion.
MorroW
Profile Joined August 2008
Sweden3522 Posts
January 11 2010 15:14 GMT
#5
start play toss, then u can recall ur units from the actual rally point without even selecting ur units!

no but really i dont see what ur asking for, to fill up groups or to create new ones or what? whats ur real problem
Progamerpls no copy pasterino
Nogardeci89
Profile Blog Joined September 2009
United States113 Posts
January 11 2010 15:16 GMT
#6
On January 12 2010 00:14 MorroW wrote:
start play toss, then u can recall ur units from the actual rally point without even selecting ur units!

no but really i dont see what ur asking for, to fill up groups or to create new ones or what? whats ur real problem


Its always fun to hate protoss.

But seriously, ur not going to want to hear this but it just takes practice to get faster.
Scorch
Profile Blog Joined March 2008
Austria3371 Posts
January 11 2010 15:23 GMT
#7
If I have some half-empty control groups left over from a battle and want to fill up my hotkeys to 12 units each:

Select an existing group by pressing the hotkey
Add reinforcement units with shift + (ctrl+click or doubleclick or drawing a frame with the mouse)
Ctrl+# to assign the new hotkey
Send the units away/forward so they aren't selected twice
Repeat for the next control group

I'm a 60-70 apm D player though, so make of that what you will.
Noah
Profile Joined June 2008
Norway164 Posts
January 11 2010 15:25 GMT
#8
I remember seeing this FPvod which had some great techniques on how to hotkey bunched up units faster. The way I'm doing it now is that I have to make one control group, and then send them off screen so I can ctrl select a new one and hotkey them. If someone knows which video I'm talking about then that will be all the help I need really.

MorroW my main problem is dealing with a huge group of units sitting in my natural. I've focused on macro all the while practicing so far, so I'm sorta producing more units than I can handle in the mid-game so I get masses of units sitting at my rally point. I think my P friend knows about this so he usually attacks when he see me starting to move around single control groups so I can group up the rest.
Necosarius
Profile Blog Joined September 2009
Sweden4042 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-01-11 15:30:44
January 11 2010 15:28 GMT
#9
On January 12 2010 00:11 Noah wrote:
Necosarius I know how to hotkey units, I'm just not doing it fast enough and it feels like I'm not using the right technique because I haven't really improved in it.

Amber I'm not talking about hotkeying factories, as I said my macro is actually quite decent for my level. The problem comes when I have to hotkey the units at my rally point quickly when I have tons of units sitting there.

My TvP games usually ends up in mid/late game as I've learned how to micro to survive most of what my P friend throws at me while taking my natural. I try to push out at 2/1 or if I see him doing a quick expansion.


If you know your hotkeys and how to hotkey new units, what are you asking for? How to hotkey faster? Well, just pracitce...

Edit: Oh so that's your problem... well hotkey your units before you have a huge group in your nat? Seems like your problem is that you aren't fast enough.
ProoM
Profile Blog Joined May 2009
Lithuania1741 Posts
January 11 2010 15:41 GMT
#10
Well, if you got lot's of same kind unit's, select from the side instead of ctrl clicking :}. If you got like 3 kinds of units, that's what I do atleast:
Move my screen so I only can see like Quater of my army, and ctrl click and move them out of the stack . Well, that's atleast what I do :}
IMBA - International Mountain Bicycling Association.
r.Evo
Profile Joined August 2006
Germany14080 Posts
January 11 2010 15:49 GMT
#11
On January 11 2010 23:57 Necosarius wrote:
Select a bunch of units and click shift+# and they will be added to the group. For example, you've got 4 marines on hotkey 1, you select 8 (or more) marines and press shift+1 and 8 marines will be added to group 1.


I never knew that this works this way around. Personally I'd do the above with pressing 1, shift, doubleclick rines at rally point, ctrl 1.
"We don't make mistakes here, we call it happy little accidents." ~Bob Ross
Rainbow
Profile Blog Joined December 2008
United States249 Posts
January 11 2010 15:56 GMT
#12
If you constantly push and reinforce, you shouldn't have any trouble having that giant blob of units in your natural, especially in TvZ, where replenishing those 6 marines will help you kill lurkers and ultras faster.
You just need to select from the side instead of CTRL+click or double click. Also, using the SHIFT key works really good. Also try separating them in small groups, do something while they move and then come back to hotkey.
Gustav_Wind
Profile Joined July 2008
United States646 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-01-11 15:58:24
January 11 2010 15:57 GMT
#13
On January 12 2010 00:25 Noah wrote:
The way I'm doing it now is that I have to make one control group, and then send them off screen so I can ctrl select a new one and hotkey them. If someone knows which video I'm talking about then that will be all the help I need really.
.


Yeah the sending them off the screen bit seems like it would slow down the process by a lot, as well as create vulnerability.

Have you tried making boxes over smaller sections of like units, i.e. try to box 4-6 tanks at a time, and using shift to fill up the rest of the control group? So you would box a couple, then shift and box a couple at a time (or click on them individually if they are spread out) until the 12 is filled up.

meteorskunk
Profile Blog Joined August 2009
Canada546 Posts
January 11 2010 15:58 GMT
#14
What kind of things exactly did the fpvod show you?
From my experience (d+ level mechanics buff) the shift key is a good buddy to you. Your first group you make of a certain type of unit from teh clump you will obv use ctrl click and then ctrl + # and then move them out of the way. From that point on just hold shift and box around stuff. And then if you assign it a number before its reached 12 units u can use the above technique shift + #.
I think the key is keeping organized and grabbing stuff before on the way to the rally.
Girl Blog Credentials: Comfortable talking to some women. Tried the sex once
2on2
Profile Joined April 2009
United States142 Posts
January 11 2010 16:05 GMT
#15
Clearly he knows how to group, but try a diffrent order

vultures 1 (move them away)
tanks 3
vultures 2

which this method, when u hotkey your 1st set of units and move them away, you select another type of unit so that the already assigned units dont get selected. Then assign the rest of your vults and move them away.

I found this method really useful when using bio aswell
jimminy_kriket
Profile Blog Joined February 2007
Canada5498 Posts
January 11 2010 16:20 GMT
#16
I dont think there is an easy solution. It just takes time to figure out the easiest ways to do it. Mainly selecting from the edges of the rally pile and moving inwards, that way you can move the hotkeyed units out of view and work only with the unhotkeyed units.
life of lively to live to life of full life thx to shield battery
cafaro
Profile Joined November 2008
Netherlands32 Posts
January 11 2010 16:33 GMT
#17
I think i have the same problem and it's really annoying

especially tvz when you have a bunch of m&m and you want to move out

you can't just ctrl-click ctrl+1 and ctrl-click ctrl+2 for marines, because you will end up having marines in multiple groups and some marines not grouped at all...

so you have to carefully shift-box/select all units to make groups and that takes a while, especially with a big army

i think it requires a lot of practice in order to get really fast at it, or is there a more efficient way?
Noah
Profile Joined June 2008
Norway164 Posts
January 11 2010 18:32 GMT
#18
On January 12 2010 01:33 cafaro wrote:
I think i have the same problem and it's really annoying

especially tvz when you have a bunch of m&m and you want to move out

you can't just ctrl-click ctrl+1 and ctrl-click ctrl+2 for marines, because you will end up having marines in multiple groups and some marines not grouped at all...

so you have to carefully shift-box/select all units to make groups and that takes a while, especially with a big army

i think it requires a lot of practice in order to get really fast at it, or is there a more efficient way?


Yes exactly. I think it's harder with a mech army than a bionic army though, the smaller units makes them easier to divide into small neat groups. When I do this with large units like tanks I have to send them further away which can make them vulnerable to attack.

I'm going to edit a map to have a tons of hostile sunkens in an area, and then put on the build speed cheat and money cheat and just macro up 5-6 groups, hotkey them and then just suicide them over and over. It's just so frustrating to advance in every other aspect of Starcraft skillwise but I just can't seem to improve at this at the same rate. Losing because of the same thing over and over becomes demoralizing.
PH
Profile Blog Joined June 2008
United States6173 Posts
January 11 2010 18:37 GMT
#19
This is a problem that plagues all players all the way up to the progamer level, tbh.

There is no easy solution...you just have to work on being more efficient as you play more and more games.
Hello
yoden
Profile Blog Joined June 2009
United States64 Posts
January 11 2010 18:40 GMT
#20
Hotkey your units as they come out of production buildings.

They're all spread out, so you can easily add to correct groups.
You will immediately reinforce your army this way; make your macro look like BeSt
1 2 3 Next All
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
The PondCast
10:00
Episode 50
CranKy Ducklings43
Liquipedia
GSL Code S
09:30
Ro8 - Group B
Zoun vs TBDLIVE!
herO vs Bunny
LiquipediaDiscussion
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
Lowko158
ProTech123
MindelVK 19
StarCraft: Brood War
Calm 10701
Sea 3284
Hyuk 1776
Shuttle 819
actioN 452
Mini 383
EffOrt 310
ZerO 290
Stork 245
Soulkey 171
[ Show more ]
Light 144
Pusan 129
Zeus 115
Last 114
JulyZerg 66
ToSsGirL 47
TY 45
sSak 43
Sharp 39
hero 35
JYJ24
NaDa 21
Noble 15
Nal_rA 14
Movie 12
HiyA 11
zelot 8
ivOry 4
Dota 2
XcaliburYe787
BananaSlamJamma497
boxi98331
Fuzer 248
XaKoH 138
League of Legends
JimRising 454
Counter-Strike
Stewie2K1119
shoxiejesuss998
kennyS523
allub157
Super Smash Bros
Westballz4
Heroes of the Storm
Khaldor211
Other Games
singsing1791
C9.Mang0599
Happy474
XBOCT407
crisheroes377
Crank 327
DeMusliM237
Mew2King139
Organizations
Dota 2
PGL Dota 2 - Secondary Stream4268
StarCraft: Brood War
Kim Chul Min (afreeca) 972
Other Games
gamesdonequick586
StarCraft: Brood War
lovetv 8
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
sctven
[ Show 12 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• LaughNgamezSOOP
• Migwel
• sooper7s
StarCraft: Brood War
• Airneanach7
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
Other Games
• WagamamaTV143
Upcoming Events
OSC
10h 20m
Replay Cast
13h 20m
OSC
13h 20m
WardiTV Invitational
1d
OSC
1d 2h
Korean StarCraft League
1d 16h
SOOP
1d 22h
sOs vs Percival
CranKy Ducklings
1d 23h
WardiTV Invitational
2 days
Cheesadelphia
2 days
[ Show More ]
CSO Cup
2 days
GSL Code S
2 days
Rogue vs TBD
TBD vs GuMiho
Sparkling Tuna Cup
2 days
Replay Cast
3 days
Wardi Open
4 days
Replay Cast
4 days
Replay Cast
4 days
RSL Revival
4 days
Cure vs Percival
ByuN vs Spirit
RSL Revival
5 days
herO vs sOs
Zoun vs Clem
Replay Cast
6 days
The PondCast
6 days
RSL Revival
6 days
Serral vs SHIN
Solar vs Cham
Liquipedia Results

Completed

CSL Season 17: Qualifier 2
BGE Stara Zagora 2025
Heroes 10 EU

Ongoing

JPL Season 2
BSL 2v2 Season 3
BSL Season 20
KCM Race Survival 2025 Season 2
NPSL S3
Rose Open S1
CSL 17: 2025 SUMMER
2025 GSL S2
BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025
ESL Impact League Season 7
IEM Dallas 2025
PGL Astana 2025
Asian Champions League '25
BLAST Rivals Spring 2025
MESA Nomadic Masters
CCT Season 2 Global Finals
IEM Melbourne 2025
YaLLa Compass Qatar 2025
PGL Bucharest 2025
BLAST Open Spring 2025

Upcoming

Copa Latinoamericana 4
CSLPRO Last Chance 2025
CSLPRO Chat StarLAN 3
K-Championship
SEL Season 2 Championship
Esports World Cup 2025
HSC XXVII
Championship of Russia 2025
Murky Cup #2
Esports World Cup 2025
BLAST Bounty Fall 2025
BLAST Bounty Fall Qual
IEM Cologne 2025
FISSURE Playground #1
TLPD

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

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

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