I started playing broodwars again, and realized that I never fully learned how to properly hotkey. When I am playing in a game I literally have to look at the hotkey (ctrl) button and the # to see if I am correctly hotkeying. And on top of that my fingers can't reach beyond 6-0 without completely screwing me up. How do you guys manage to reach the hotkey button and not completely obliterate yourselves? I started using the right side ctrl button for hotkeying 0-6 is this a better option for you guys as well?

Edit: Also what happened to apmlive?

vek

Australia936 Posts

November 08 2010 11:25 GMT

What works for me is I move my hand across to the other side of the keyboard so my thumb is on the right CTRL button and then I can hit 6-0 with my middle/index finger.

Some progamers (boxer is one) take their hand off the mouse so they can assign hotkeys with their right hand while holding ctrl with the left.

It all depends on the size of your hand and what feels most comfortable.

Just experiment and find what works best for you

Altair

243 Posts

November 08 2010 12:38 GMT

If you have trouble remembering your hotkeys or assigning them to the right key then you can use a key as a reference point, for example: you hotkey your CC as 4 and now you want to hotkey your barracks as 5, if you do it directly you can screw up, instead of doing that select your CC and then move your finger to the next key which is 5 obviously, click barracks, ctrl 5. Hope this helps.

SneakPeek

Philippines162 Posts

November 08 2010 13:23 GMT

.. for me if i need to hotkey multiple unit production structures(zerg player so its a hatchery) instead of manually hotkeying each structure, i just construct them in the four hotkeyed bases then just click on the structure i need to produce units. or i just make them in one separate base then just use shift+f1-f4 keys so i can store the location which doesnt give me a difficult time reaching 6-0

Zyferous

United States270 Posts

November 08 2010 13:49 GMT

When I need to use 6-0, I tend to take my hand off the mouse and use both hands to hotkey, however using the right ctrl works as well.

A lot of this just comes with muscle memory, so just practice!

blueblimp

Canada297 Posts

November 08 2010 14:58 GMT

For a while I was playing with my laptop keyboard, which has a super small left control key and no right control key, so what I did was remap caps lock to control. (This is a pretty common thing to do for other reasons, given that caps lock is used a lot less than control.) I've stuck with this despite moving to other keyboards because of a combination of habit and that stretching my little finger too far causes me hand damage.

Edit: I found a link with instructions for this: http://www.jonlee.ca/remap-capslock-the-most-useless-key/. Unfortunately, since caps lock is useless, a fair number of keyboards are designed to make caps lock hard to hit, so if you have one of those designs, this tip won't help as much as it could.

Ilikestarcraft

Korea (South)17733 Posts

November 08 2010 15:21 GMT

When a problem occurs you should try to isolate the problem as much as possible. A solution that might sound stupid but I recommend you is go on single player cheat key play or without any opponent on udp/online and just practice hotkeying stuff. At first you will have to look down. But what you want is eventually for hotkeying to be almost automatic. You should never look down. Your hand should memorize the location. How I hotkey and I think most do is have their pinky on control and hotkey the number with the middle or index finger.

Also your problem with hotkeying past 6 with 1 hand. Don't worry I have that problem too. I think mostly all asians/people with small hands have problems with that. And your way is actually correct, using the right control key. The problem with me and others with a korean keyboard, the right control key doesn't work in game so I use the right shift key to hotkey my comsats. Shift+09. Jaedong who is known to have small hands doesn't hotkey past 7 from the replays I've seen. Its helps to use all the keys but if you are physical limited by it you can't do anything about it. Letting your hand off the mouse is actually not optimal. It throws you off and your hand is off the mouse unable to react to anything until its back on.

puppykiller

United States3137 Posts

November 08 2010 15:33 GMT

My hands are small so I use my thumb on the left contrl and rotate my hand into the # keys. I also put huge clumps of tape on keys 6 and 8 so i can keep track of what im asigning to without looking.

Edit: wow that remap thing for capslock is amazing. Im definetly going to do that.

Ilikestarcraft

Korea (South)17733 Posts

November 08 2010 16:48 GMT

On November 09 2010 00:33 puppykiller wrote:
My hands are small so I use my thumb on the left contrl and rotate my hand into the # keys. I also put huge clumps of tape on keys 6 and 8 so i can keep track of what im asigning to without looking.

Edit: wow that remap thing for capslock is amazing. Im definetly going to do that.

I know someone who does that. It looks so awkward when he hotkeys with his thumb. Maybe its more comfortable hotkeying this way for the earlier numbers such as 123 but for higher ones like 456 its so awkward and hard to reach. Pinky on control gives you that longer reach if your hands are small imo.

Also for op I've seen some people who try to hotkey 890 with their thumb on 890 with pinky on control. For example there was this old Xellos fpvod thats up on youtube vs thewind on lt which shows his fingers while playing the whole time and it seems he does that. But it seems he only does that for 9 and uses two hands for 0. I think that was before shift+# was added in a patch. See if you can reach like that. I can do it but its stretches my hand too much that its actually slightly painful so I don't use it.

Kinky

United States4126 Posts

November 08 2010 17:26 GMT

#10

I use the left side of my palm to hit the control key and 1-6 with my fingers. 7-0 I hotkey with the right ctrl.
It all comes down to preference since everyone has different hands, read through this thread and see what fits you best.

Ilikestarcraft

Korea (South)17733 Posts

November 08 2010 19:25 GMT

#11

On November 09 2010 02:26 Kinky wrote:
I use the left side of my palm to hit the control key and 1-6 with my fingers. 7-0 I hotkey with the right ctrl.
It all comes down to preference since everyone has different hands, read through this thread and see what fits you best.

whoa first time i've heard of someone using their palm to hotkey

Cofo

United States1388 Posts

November 08 2010 20:35 GMT

#12

If you have the type of keyboard with removable keys, try taking out the windows and/or alt key. Doing that helped me a lot, since it makes the control key stand out much more.

Misillusion

46 Posts

November 08 2010 21:37 GMT

#13

I use a laptop, and it just so happens that my ctrl is right where the base of my pinky finger lies. I use that part of my hand for ctrl when I reach for #1-5. for 6-7, I extend my pinky, and for 8-0 I move to the right side.

Probably doesn't work for everyone, but it seems to be okay for most laptops.

Erucious

Norway393 Posts

November 08 2010 21:42 GMT

#14

On November 09 2010 04:25 Ilikestarcraft wrote:

Show nested quote +

whoa first time i've heard of someone using their palm to hotkey

i do this too... I touch the control with the opposite side of my pinky's knuckle (if that even makes sense

... its on the "palm" side of my hand). Works very well, but cant hit more than 1-5 with it though.

oN_Silva

197 Posts

November 08 2010 21:51 GMT

#15

If we were all playing on macintosh we could use the "alt" key instead of the str...

fy microsoft =/

djcube

United States985 Posts

November 09 2010 00:55 GMT

#16

It's just like typing normally for 1-6. However, I honestly can't accurately press 7-0 either without looking at the keyboard. Usually I hotkey scans to 7-0 and just throw my thumb in that general direction.

Grobyc

Canada18410 Posts

November 09 2010 01:16 GMT

#17

I take my right hand off the mouse to hotkey 7-0 as well as I have my bottom left windows key taken out to make the ctrl key stand out more. I've never really tried using the right ctrl key. Might have to check it out and see what feels more comfortable for me.

Godstorm

Romania845 Posts

November 09 2010 18:53 GMT

#18

hmm, i generally press ctrl with "the opposite side of my pinky's knuckle" like erucious. Also my hands are pretty big so i can touch ctrl with the upper part of my pinky and up to - with the tip of my thumb.I imagine using the right ctrl key can be as fast but i don't like moving my hand away from the left half of my keyboard(too much WoW lolz).

kOre

Canada3642 Posts

November 09 2010 19:31 GMT

#19

I do what you do. Left hand pinky is on CTRL while the other fingers go from 1-6 and then when I need to hotkey more units/buildings I use the right CTRL key (my left thumb is the CTRL) and then the other fingers for numbers 7, 8, 9, and 0.

When I need to use the units and buildings I usually use my left hand for 1 - 8 and 9 and 0 are usually Nexus so I don't use them as much.

P.S. It helps if you have a multicolored keyboard. Right now my setup is made to look cool but when I plan on going back to SC my white keys are usually Z, D, T, K, S, R, V because of unit hotkeys

Murderotica

Vatican City State2594 Posts

November 09 2010 21:27 GMT

#20

To get to higher numbers either use your right hand, use the right ctrl, or do what I do which is use middle finger for 1-2, index for 3-7, thumb for 8-0, with pinkie on control of course. To use ctrl easier all there is to it is practice. You just have to force yourself to hotkey as often as possible. GL!