In almost all the streams I see, zerg players tend to put an individual hatchery on 5,6,7,8 etc, which allows them to double press each number and instantly center on the hatchery, allowing for fast queen injects and all the things you have to do at each individual hatchery like instantly switching to the focus you want without having to press on the minimap.

Can someone confirm if this is the best way to manage the hotkeys? What I tend to do is just put all my hatcheries on 6 and all my queens on 5, then use the backspace v left click cycle to inject really fast, and it allows me to mass units out of all my hatches really fast(6-s-hold down whatever unit hotkey I need). However, I never see this on pro streams, so can someone explain the best way to manage hatchery and scout hotkeys in general?

Thanks in advance!

Tabularasa

Germany116 Posts

July 17 2013 20:39 GMT

The best way is the one you feel the most comfortable with. I guess many pros use individual hotkeys for queens or hatcheries because they are used to the mechanics from broodwar.

Personally, I use a modified backspace method and when i can't use it properly (weird hatchery/queen-situations) I actually scroll from base to base and inject manually - I'm use drag-scroll and usually scroll from one base to another with a fast swipe, so it doesn't take me much more time than most people with their prefered method.

Henk

Netherlands578 Posts

July 17 2013 20:48 GMT

I have them all on 4, queens on 5. I rebound backspace to spacebar, so spacebar cycles between hatcheries. Thus I do the same thing as you do basically, but without needing to reach all the way to the backspace button.

Also pros usually have one hotkey which features all hatcheries to be able to produce units, too.

Marcinko

South Africa1014 Posts

July 17 2013 20:49 GMT

I use the same method as you with my Hatcheries on one hotkey and my Queens on another, but I was just reading something on using screen hotkeys (f5,f6,f7) for quick switching bewteen bases.

Not that I am an pro by any means.

People_0f_Color

177 Posts

July 17 2013 21:02 GMT

I renamed my control groups 6-10 to f1-f5 and I number my queens f1-f5.

naked

United States39 Posts

July 17 2013 21:12 GMT

Add a poll maybe?

I use the backspace trick, remapped to `. Queens on 5, hats on 6.

TheSwagger

United States92 Posts

July 17 2013 21:24 GMT

I main Terran, but play random for a better idea of the meta surrounding all the matchups; that being said, I typically have all Queens hotkeyed to 5, and I inject from the minimap. Probably isnt the most efficient like having the cyclic location keys for queens, but it works well for me.

Mistakes

United States1102 Posts

July 17 2013 21:27 GMT

I use my queens on individual hotkeys 4 through however many separate expansions I have. If I have a macro hatch with an extra queen I put the extra queen on the hotkey with the queen to the next closest base hatchery. I started doing this in BETA from having my hatcheries on separate hotkeys in broodwar but modified it a bit with SC2, it seems to work well.

zombie105

8 Posts

July 17 2013 21:30 GMT

I have individual hatcheries too.. D:

It is a good thing, yet its easy to fall behind on so you need to get used to it first.

RaiZ

2813 Posts

July 17 2013 21:55 GMT

#10

Most zerg definitely use camera hotkeys. At least koreans' zerg. Not the double tap method.

vapor666

United States11 Posts

July 17 2013 21:59 GMT

#11

I have all my queens on F2 (rebound control group 0), my base camera (backspace) on F3 and inject on F4. That way I just roll from F2, F3, F4 click which is extremely fast. Personally I like my hatches on 1 and army 2-5.

ApocAlypsE007

Israel1007 Posts

July 17 2013 22:22 GMT

#12

I've never played BW seriously so I don't hotkey each Hatchery individually. What I do is hotkey a single Hatch for inject checking and another hotkey for all the Hatches. For injects I use camera hotkeys, I don't hotkey my injecting Queens, I only hotkey the creep spreading ones.

phodacbiet

United States1740 Posts

July 17 2013 22:30 GMT

#13

On July 18 2013 05:11 LawrenceVern wrote:
In almost all the streams I see, zerg players tend to put an individual hatchery on 5,6,7,8 etc, which allows them to double press each number and instantly center on the hatchery, allowing for fast queen injects and all the things you have to do at each individual hatchery like instantly switching to the focus you want without having to press on the minimap.

Can someone confirm if this is the best way to manage the hotkeys? What I tend to do is just put all my hatcheries on 6 and all my queens on 5, then use the backspace v left click cycle to inject really fast, and it allows me to mass units out of all my hatches really fast(6-s-hold down whatever unit hotkey I need). However, I never see this on pro streams, so can someone explain the best way to manage hatchery and scout hotkeys in general?

Thanks in advance!

Do whatever youre comfortable with. For example, Jaedong use 5 for all his hatches and 6789 for additional hatches. In the early game he uses this to make sure his units dont retard out and rally to their death. However, in the mid -> late game he just use 5 mainly and use the camera keys (f1-8) to control his bases/injects. At the same time, he still uses the 6789 in cases he needs to control his rally (ive stalked his setup). While other people like DRG just hotkey all the hatches separately (dont know if he still does), but i dont think it is necessary to do this since blizzard made sc easier and people should be taking advantage of the control group features, not stick to their sc1 days. I dont like the backspace method because if you play against a terrans or if you have less queens than hatches your queens retard out and run everywhere and no injects get done. The camera method or hotkeying hatches make it so you can always be incontrol of your injects.

KingofGods

Canada1218 Posts

July 17 2013 22:44 GMT

#14

I hotkey all hatcheries on the same key and also use camera hotkeys for each base. I don't bother hotkeying my queens. I think it's easy to just jump to base, grab the queen that is right next to hatchery and inject.