I watched Tiny Land's video on camera hotkeys Tiny Land's video on camera hotkeys and learned that Pro's often bind f1 to the first base, f2 to the second, and f3 to the third.

When I play brood war, I bind the keys 1 to my first, 2 to my second, and 3 to my third base. Is there a reason why I'd want to use the F keys if I already have a hotkey that takes me there?

Are camera keys more of a late game thing? I.e. we unbind 1,2, and 3 from the bases so that we can free up space to bind more units and thus control our army better?

Or can I keep 1,2,3 bounded to my first 3 bases, and then use the camera keys for some other purpose...?

Jealous

10156 Posts

August 30 2017 01:22 GMT

On August 30 2017 10:14 24 wrote:
I watched Tiny Land's video on camera hotkeys Tiny Land's video on camera hotkeys and learned that Pro's often bind f1 to the first base, f2 to the second, and f3 to the third.

When I play brood war, I bind the keys 1 to my first, 2 to my second, and 3 to my third base. Is there a reason why I'd want to use the F keys if I already have a hotkey that takes me there?

Are camera keys more of a late game thing? I.e. we unbind 1,2, and 3 from the bases so that we can free up space to bind more units and thus control our army better?

Or can I keep 1,2,3 bounded to my first 3 bases, and then use the camera keys for some other purpose...?

It helps free up hotkeys for other things, but also helps tremendously for transferring workers during harass (because using regular hotkeys for your town hall will deselect the workers).

Camera keys can be useful throughout the game. When you are re-rallying your production facilities, for example.

I've seen people suggest to use the camera keys for bases, then switch them to your production facilities/rally point to re-rally, then switch them back to bases.

Dante08

Singapore4128 Posts

August 30 2017 04:15 GMT

Unless you got some weird setup where your movement keys are located elsewhere, you should not be binding 1,2,3 to your bases as they are the most effective keys for controlling your army.

Camera keys are crucial to good mechanics and have 3 main uses - macro, rally points and to transfer workers when harassed. The most effective way of macroing is to hit the camera key to all your barracks/gateways. Camera keys allow you to quickly grab reinforcements at your natural.
When being harassed by reavers templars etc, the fastest way to ensure all your workers don't die is to use the camera keys and select all the workers straight to another mineral patch so they don't get stuck. Imagine if you were to use hotkeys, you select your workers and prepare to send them to another base, and you press 2 cause that's where your nat is. Guess what, now you've selected your nat base and lose the worker selection and boom all of them are gone.

As I've said camera hotkeys are crucial in BW mechanics and mastering them will improve your game by miles.

Sihrtogg

Netherlands29 Posts

August 30 2017 06:52 GMT

For T and P I find it very useful to have F2 as my rally point (change it whenever you want to change your rally) and F3 as a production center. After I change my rally camera hothey, I hit F3 and click a building then I go into the following cycle:

F2
rightclick
F3
build unit (some hotkey like y for zealot)
leftclick another building
repeat

This for me is a very fast way to change rallypoint while macroing. I keep F4 as my newest base to transfer workers during harass, when an old base is mined out, or to reinforce with army units.

Jealous

10156 Posts

August 30 2017 06:58 GMT

^^
^
Get it?

Wimpsyay

7 Posts

September 19 2017 12:34 GMT

So, I'm having some difficulty setting camera hotkeys on my Mac. So far, Google hasn't been a big help. I already looked at System Preferences > Keyboard > Use F1, F2 as standard function keys. And I use CMD as CTRL in Starcraft.

Basically nothing works: CMD + F1 or CTRL + F1 etc etc. Anyone on Mac who has experience with this?

sTev0

Germany1 Post

September 19 2017 13:00 GMT

On September 19 2017 21:34 Wimpsyay wrote:
So, I'm having some difficulty setting camera hotkeys on my Mac. So far, Google hasn't been a big help. I already looked at System Preferences > Keyboard > Use F1, F2 as standard function keys. And I use CMD as CTRL in Starcraft.

Basically nothing works: CMD + F1 or CTRL + F1 etc etc. Anyone on Mac who has experience with this?

You better try Shift + Fx.

Wimpsyay

7 Posts

September 19 2017 20:12 GMT

On September 19 2017 22:00 sTev0 wrote:

Show nested quote +

You better try Shift + Fx.

Thanks.

mcmascote

Brazil1575 Posts

September 19 2017 21:40 GMT

I use it f2 f3 and f4 to hotkey my bases. I used to put one of the locations hotkeys on my gateways to macro, this was 8 or so years ago. now that you get (as a P) a 2nd base as early as you can and the 3rd one also comes much earlier I noticed that having the bases on hotkeys not only helps me save workers from harass as quick as possible but more importantly (IMHO) it helps you pump up workers and send them to mine also as fast as possible. Usually, as a P, you always have a time period where you can pump up workers from your 3 bases and nowadays to me it can be the difference maker, my macro shines when I do this perfectly.

I should be changing f4 to my gateways in the mid/late game but since I make my gateways near my original Nexus I developed the habit of typing f2 and them moving the screen a bit to see my gateways and then macro. It's not ideal, but I really like having the 'control' of my bases.

When I'm very focused, it also helps me to develop the 4th and 5th bases in midst of battles. IE. Shift workers, make cannons, build gateways, etc.

wishbonesaka

Canada117 Posts

September 20 2017 07:13 GMT

#10

It's a personal preference, if you like the way you do it, you'll get faster and when you try a "more better" way it will be slow as hell. But gets to be natural reflex again with practice.

My f keys are F2-3rd Nexus, F3-4th Nexus, F4-5th Nexus, and when I try anything new with the F keys, it screws me up hard since I'm not willing to practice a new use for them.