EPTLet me start with a personal introduction - + Show Spoiler +
I'm a pretty casual SC2 player but absolutley love the game. I played (campaign and SERIAL direct cable connection, don't worry we upgraded later) Starcraft and Broodwar back in the day but was too young to be of any great skill level (Sorry to disappoint you Startale Life.) I even tinkered with the map maker for when friends came over so we could slaughter wave upon wave of Easy computer opponents' troops.
Fast forward a decade or so and I was captured by the story of SC2 Wings of Liberty and loved playing a new version of all those child hood memories. For a while thats where it stayed, my friends played some multiplayer but i was never really interested except for a few FFAs and vsAi matches.
After HotS I was captured again, the story campaign only lasted a few days for me and versus AI was fun again. Nexus wars ate up a fair bit of my time at one point and somewhere down the track once comeptitive SC2 had switched to HotS I started watching.
IEMs and WCS Europe were my thing, Kaelris and Apollo give me a good laugh as an Aussie and the layout was easy to understand and follow. Youtube VODs were easy to pick up and put down. I remember watching Jadeong at WCS World Final (2013?) live Stream and feeling the crowd with him. I remember MMA's run last year with my GF barracking even though she had no idea what was going on only to be pipped by Life.
Throughout my time as a spectator I've had various stages of inspiration to play. Initially i tried my hand at the Matchmaking vs AI. Then i tried to take the action online, as someone who works full time Ladder can be frustrating. Not having enough time to practise and honestly not much patience, online gameplay normally proved to be enraging rather than fun(one can only lose so much before they lose their temper.)
Now I play for fun and to *support* the game. I mostly play AI if I feel the starcraft 2 itch although occasionally I can convince my co-workers and friends to jump on for some 2v2s,3v3s, FFAs etc.
Fast forward a decade or so and I was captured by the story of SC2 Wings of Liberty and loved playing a new version of all those child hood memories. For a while thats where it stayed, my friends played some multiplayer but i was never really interested except for a few FFAs and vsAi matches.
After HotS I was captured again, the story campaign only lasted a few days for me and versus AI was fun again. Nexus wars ate up a fair bit of my time at one point and somewhere down the track once comeptitive SC2 had switched to HotS I started watching.
IEMs and WCS Europe were my thing, Kaelris and Apollo give me a good laugh as an Aussie and the layout was easy to understand and follow. Youtube VODs were easy to pick up and put down. I remember watching Jadeong at WCS World Final (2013?) live Stream and feeling the crowd with him. I remember MMA's run last year with my GF barracking even though she had no idea what was going on only to be pipped by Life.
Throughout my time as a spectator I've had various stages of inspiration to play. Initially i tried my hand at the Matchmaking vs AI. Then i tried to take the action online, as someone who works full time Ladder can be frustrating. Not having enough time to practise and honestly not much patience, online gameplay normally proved to be enraging rather than fun(one can only lose so much before they lose their temper.)
Now I play for fun and to *support* the game. I mostly play AI if I feel the starcraft 2 itch although occasionally I can convince my co-workers and friends to jump on for some 2v2s,3v3s, FFAs etc.
Background - + Show Spoiler +
...I tried my hand at the LotV Beta but without AI or anyone else i know in the Beta i found it hard to practise with\against the new units. I also switched to Grid (qwert) as I believed it would make me quicker, which it did. Although I found myself fumbling for keys at times. I remembered a long time ago while laddering I found a hotkey trainer that might be of some use. See: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/starcraft-2/357033-program-hotkey-trainer . With limited time to practise at my gaming PC an external program was easier to use than the many Arcade\Custom maps out there. However it looked like it was unfortunately discontinued, I googled around and couldn't find anything else similar.
Being an IT Tech with some basic programming knowledge, I figured i'd have a crack in my spare time and make something for me to use. And hopefully something that the community as well, finds useful.
Hotkey Trainer v0.1
If you're not always at your gaming PC but need a little bit of extra SC2 practice give it a whirl and tell me what you think. Great for watching Streams, Youtube, boredom or "working"..
Download - [Click Here]
Screenshot of Main Window
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/PFNUvGX.jpg)
If you're not always at your gaming PC but need a little bit of extra SC2 practice give it a whirl and tell me what you think. Great for watching Streams, Youtube, boredom or "working"..
Download - [Click Here]
Screenshot of Main Window
At the moment it has default settings for Standard (Default), Grid & Grid for Lefties hotkeys, Accessible via the Hotkeys Menu
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Hotkeys Menu
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/GQ4D74U.jpg)
And the ability to *Load* your own .SC2Hotkey files via the File Menu and Reset the SC2 hotkey file from here if any issues are encountered.
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File Menu
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/bQj4TmM.jpg)
You can also manually put the path to your hotkey, or reset it to nothing if you are experiencing crashes, via the Settings.ini
(Default below if Settings.ini becomes corrupt for any reason)
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[Settings]
;;Seconds per hotkey before score is reset (Default is 5)
Seconds=5
;;Sc2hotkeys file (If not in same directory as .exe fully qualify path E.g. C:\Users\Johnny\Documents\best.sc2hotkeys)
HotkeysFile=
;;Default Layout if no HotkeyFile Found (Standard,_GLS(Grid),_GRS(Grid for Lefties) - will be standard\Default if syntax incorrect)
DefaultLayout=Standard
;;HighScore(change to 0 to reset)
HighScore=0
;;Seconds per hotkey before score is reset (Default is 5)
Seconds=5
;;Sc2hotkeys file (If not in same directory as .exe fully qualify path E.g. C:\Users\Johnny\Documents\best.sc2hotkeys)
HotkeysFile=
;;Default Layout if no HotkeyFile Found (Standard,_GLS(Grid),_GRS(Grid for Lefties) - will be standard\Default if syntax incorrect)
DefaultLayout=Standard
;;HighScore(change to 0 to reset)
HighScore=0
At the moment the default SC2 hotkeys load on the program launch and then it loads any hotkeys defined in the designated hotkeys file over the top. So if you havent changed a hotkey it should keep the default SC2 key. If grid is enabled then this will overwrite any "set" hotkeys in the [Commands] part of the sc2hotkey file. All BaseCamera\CameraHotkeys\Control Groups will still be loaded from Default.ini and then Sc2Hotkey File over the top.
Known Issues\To Work on:
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- Some Default Keys are incorrect - (maybe a camera hotkey or two and the base camera is currently set to SPACE)
- Depending on keyboards and keybinds (from custom Hotkey files) there may be some issues with functionality - Numpad keys are as yet untested but as with anything in this section if there is large community feedback I'll do my best to work on the most requested issues first.
- At the moment Hotkey Check doesn't work with Grid - mostly because there is a different way of handling the keys for Grid. Can change this if need be?
- Arrow keys likely don't work. (Does anyone use these for anything but panning?)
- ESC Closes the program (Don't try to cancel building that proxy hatch, COMMIT!)
- If an Instruction is bugged(no keys or not accepting keys) you can skip it by clicking the same race button (or another). Will keep this until more bugs are ironed out.
- Mouse buttons such as FORWARDMOUSEBUTTON (or BACK) will appear in the prompt but do not currently work (planned for future releases)
- I'm still working on some of the Hotkey Names within the SC2 files as to what connects to what - currently there are only a few Active abilities for each race. This will be easy enough to change. I could probably also make this another Section in the settings Ini if need be(Yes/No/Thoughts?) - E.g. [TerranActives] Mule = True (would then include the CallDownMule abilitiy from Command Centre) as i know some people would not use certain units etc and could then set Actives to false if they dont want to train these..
- Chance on certain things, and how often they prompt (how many Nydus worms do you need?)
- My APM sits around 100 so there may be issues if people are much faster than me with how the program registers keypresses (Please tell me if you experience issues). Though double clicking one key will reset your score if you weren't meant to (NO SPAMMING!)
Planned\Possible Features
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- Hide Keys - Maybe an in between mode if you get one wrong it shows them again..
- APM counter?
- RapidFire\Hold Keys down (For drone Production etc)
- Colour Customization (Instruction size\colour + Correct\Incorrect keys colour.)
- Update Timer animation\picture.
- Actual SC2 icons\pictures for actions (Drone.jpg etc etc)
- Currently if more than one key is assigned to a function it will come up with a | in between them (Example A|D|SPACE) I'd like to make this look a little better.
- Possible build order mode - Clickable Workers, mineral income and supply. (way down the track)
Any Feed back is much appreciated! This is more of a hobby than anything at this stage so if there is a large amount of issues found by the community it may take me a while to address them. I'll update this post\Twitter with new versions..
Follow me on Twitter
Watch me on Youtube
*edit for grammar*
