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I haven't seen a topic discussing this recently, but if there's already one around, then please link it. I'm interested in whether people have tricks for keeping their army rallied and hot-keyed appropriately. I've developed some tricks of my own, but sometimes they feel a bit clunky, so I'd like to hear how other people go about it.
I usually have 3 groups in my army - melee, ranged / caster, and air. When I build units I rally them into the same area as my main army and then to add them to my existing force I use hit the hotkey for army group, shift-ctrl-click one of the new units, and then re-apply the hotkey binding. Sometimes I miss a group of new units though, which means when an attack comes I only have some of the army hotkeyed, leading to horrible micro failure. Does anyone have a better way to do this?
One random neat thing that I've picked up that is worth sharing with new Zerg players is that you can rally eggs independently of the normal hatchery rally point. I use this to reinforce my mutalisks when they're out in the field harassing without messing up the rally point for the rest of my army. Just have your mutas on screen, select the hatchery's larvae hotkeys, hit T a bunch of times, and then rightclick on a muta in your blob and voila, the mutas will go to your blob without messing up your regular rally point. This is also handy for making small strike forces of zerglings to attack exposed expansions, whilst keeping your regular rally point fixed. Just make lings and rally the eggs specifically rather than changing the hatchery rally point.
Related to this is sometimes I'll be low on drones at two different hatcheries, and have a bunch of larvae, half of which I want to be drones for one hatch, and half for the other. To handle this I hit the hatch hotkey, hit s for the larvae, make half the larvae into drones, rally the eggs to one hatches' minerals, then reselect the hatcheries, hit s again so that the remaining larvae are selected, morph them all into drones, and rally the eggs to the other hatchery. The point is that if you reselect the hatcheries and larvae then it clears the morphing eggs from your selection so that you can rally two groups of eggs to two different places easily.
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hmm... i didn't know you could set rally seperate rally points for morphing eggs.. neat=) I'm sure that muta rallying trick will be very useful to me
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I use the egg rally point to send my workers to the correct mineral patch when early game, then late game I just depend on the hatch rally point and auto mine
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The egg rally point is nice. Just be careful that there is nothing in between your current mutas and the incoming mutas because they will take a direct route to your units.
You can add units, buildings etc to any of your existing hotkeys by selecting and then just using shit + #.
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On July 16 2010 05:39 Brazen[six] wrote:
The egg rally point is nice. Just be careful that there is nothing in between your current mutas and the incoming mutas because they will take a direct route to your units.
You can add units, buildings etc to any of your existing hotkeys by selecting and then just using shit + #.
Damn I don't have a shit key...stupid MacBook.
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I wish that rallied units automatically added to the control group like in WC3. If you have 3 or more control groups it can be a pain when reinforcements come I leave behind units too. Can be really embarrassing to see an imortal sitting there doing nothing watching a replay 
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On July 16 2010 07:29 Vimsey wrote:I wish that rallied units automatically added to the control group like in WC3. If you have 3 or more control groups it can be a pain when reinforcements come I leave behind units too. Can be really embarrassing to see an imortal sitting there doing nothing watching a replay
Uhh, I don't remember rallied units being added to the control group in WC3...
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Not only can you set the eggs to their own rally point, but you can also add them to the desired control group as you make them.
When I make units, I ctrl+click on the eggs (if there is any unused larva), then shift+# to add them to a control group. Much easier, cleaner, and more dependable than rallying them to a unit and adding them later.
I play random, but I really don't have a better way of hotkeying for any other race. As protoss, you don't have to wait until the units are done warping in before selecting/hotkeying/rallying them, though. That's slightly helpful, I guess. I tend to accidentally hold shift when I box them though, and end up with my warp gates inside my control group. Not the biggest thing in the world though, unless you need to tab through or you're relying on the number of units in the control group to be accurate.
Terran is by far my worst race, though, so I don't really have any suggestions for them. I've found that not rallying my troops to my army is slightly easier to deal with, but it's probably just a matter of preference.
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That's really cool GHB - I tried it out tonight and it worked really well.
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On July 16 2010 05:39 Brazen[six] wrote:
The egg rally point is nice. Just be careful that there is nothing in between your current mutas and the incoming mutas because they will take a direct route to your units.
You can add units, buildings etc to any of your existing hotkeys by selecting and then just using shit + #.
You can shift click rally points to set up a sequence of waypoints to circumvent enemy territory. That is also useful for terran who wall off with a bunker. Hold shift and set the rally first directly inside your base, then to where you really want them to go. Sometimes, depending on the angle, simply clicking where you want to go isn't enough and they spawn on the wrong side of the barracks.
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to add units to a control group, I like to select them and then press shit+ctrlgroup# It's takes less apm to do it that way as opposed to your method. try it!
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Playing protoss, I ctrl + click one of each unit type warping in, then shift + group to add the new units to the existing group of the correct type. This method allows issuing separate commands to units already in a battle, while telling the new units warping in to first move to the battle position, then attack (or whatever).
You can queue move commands while units are warping in, but I swear every time I issue an attack-move while the units are still warping in, they ignore it. I could be wrong, but I've had units just sitting at the pylon on multiple occasions. Maybe this is part of the "rally points are now move commands"... even warping in units will ignore attack-move?
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On July 16 2010 15:05 toosoon wrote:
You can queue move commands while units are warping in, but I swear every time I issue an attack-move while the units are still warping in, they ignore it. I could be wrong, but I've had units just sitting at the pylon on multiple occasions. Maybe this is part of the "rally points are now move commands"... even warping in units will ignore attack-move?
Im pretty sure that you can only queue move commands while units are warping in, and not any attack moves.
At least it was like that in beta phase 1, but i havent had the chance to try phase 2 since im stuck on holiday far from a computer that can run SC2 =/
Anyway, i also group my warping units while they are warping in, and then move them out, then you can always issue another command, like your attack command once they get on the move 
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When you build something as terran, be sure to shift-click on a mineral patch (or something else) just after you order a building constructed, else your SCV will be idle after the building is complete
When ordering workers to go to a completed geyser harvester, shift-click on your main, then on the harvester. If the workers still has minerals in their hands it won't be lost this way.
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On July 16 2010 17:11 ayadew wrote:
When you build something as terran, be sure to shift-click on a mineral patch (or something else) just after you order a building constructed, else your SCV will be idle after the building is complete
When ordering workers to go to a completed geyser harvester, shift-click on your main, then on the harvester. If the workers still has minerals in their hands it won't be lost this way.
I didnt know you could click on the main I was pressing return cargo or whatever its called after i clicked the geyser. That is good to know.
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On July 16 2010 22:42 Vimsey wrote:Show nested quote +On July 16 2010 17:11 ayadew wrote:
When you build something as terran, be sure to shift-click on a mineral patch (or something else) just after you order a building constructed, else your SCV will be idle after the building is complete
When ordering workers to go to a completed geyser harvester, shift-click on your main, then on the harvester. If the workers still has minerals in their hands it won't be lost this way. I didnt know you could click on the main I was pressing return cargo or whatever its called after i clicked the geyser. That is good to know.
-Select workers
-Right click on gas
-Press C (return cargo)
This is faster than shift clicking on your nexus. The workers will still harvest gas after you ask them to return whatever cargo they may have had, and any workers without cargo will be unaffected by the return cargo command.
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On July 16 2010 15:05 toosoon wrote:You can queue move commands while units are warping in, but I swear every time I issue an attack-move while the units are still warping in, they ignore it. I could be wrong, but I've had units just sitting at the pylon on multiple occasions. Maybe this is part of the "rally points are now move commands"... even warping in units will ignore attack-move? If you look closely you'll notice that when you issue a move command to units that are warping in, that the lines that show up are yellow rather than green. This means it is a rally point. With the latest changes to rally points those units will only ever move to where you're clicking whether you're attack moving or not with the rest of your units.
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if u have alot of marines and ghosts and u cba shift clicking each ghost, just double click it and it selects all, then just bind them to 1.
u can also select a whole army and press tab to switch between, lets say marine stims and emps.
u press tab and the spell window switches.
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On July 16 2010 05:34 NukeTheBunnys wrote:
I use the egg rally point ...
Also VERY useful for overlord placement when morphing those in.
ex:
5sv(right-click)5sdd
Helps to position for scouting, creep highways, hiding the ovies, etc.
I've made it a habit to ALWAYS uni-rally my ovies. Comes naturally now.
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As zerg you can hotkey a drone before it morphs into a building and the building will end up in that control group. Sometimes I do that when I make my nat hatchery, bh, shift+5. The problem is that with a drone in the control group you can't select larvae until it turns into a building. Actually I wouldn't be surprised if you could tab to get back to the hatchery, I should try that next time.
I always hotkey overseers to 9, so that when the banshee comes I can immediately go 9 right click, and wherever it is it will get here. This way you don't lose the overseer.
When I build a nydus, I hotkey the nydus entrance to 0. So that when you see an opening, you don't have to run back to base, you just go 0, n, click and it's done.
Stupid trick, if you decide to build an overseer against protoss and then decide you don't need it for scouting, make it patrol between your two bases. About 25% of the time, an observer will blindly run over a hatchery and get killed by a queen.
Minor trick for people who are absent minded, you can make drones mine at a geyser before the extractor is done and they will start mining once it finishes. In the late game I always forget to put guys on gas after making them, so I just grab a row of drones, make two geysers and make the other 6 mine immediately. They'll only lose a few seconds of mineral mining.
Something I do with baneling/ling is that I'll hotkey all of them to 1, and then only the banelings to 2. This way I can move the banelings independently and still dart in with lings (because they are fast). Maybe some other people have different styles, but this works for me.
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The egg rally is really really nice for overlords. It's always a huge pain when your army is hiding out under a cloud of overlords making them hard to select.
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On July 16 2010 23:43 toosoon wrote:Show nested quote +On July 16 2010 22:42 Vimsey wrote:On July 16 2010 17:11 ayadew wrote:
When you build something as terran, be sure to shift-click on a mineral patch (or something else) just after you order a building constructed, else your SCV will be idle after the building is complete
When ordering workers to go to a completed geyser harvester, shift-click on your main, then on the harvester. If the workers still has minerals in their hands it won't be lost this way. I didnt know you could click on the main I was pressing return cargo or whatever its called after i clicked the geyser. That is good to know. -Select workers -Right click on gas -Press C (return cargo) This is faster than shift clicking on your nexus. The workers will still harvest gas after you ask them to return whatever cargo they may have had, and any workers without cargo will be unaffected by the return cargo command.
Yea I tried it after and I was doing the return cargo and have gone back to doing that. Sometimes im not quick enough but what the heck. Was hoping this would be a better solution.
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On July 16 2010 23:43 toosoon wrote:Show nested quote +On July 16 2010 22:42 Vimsey wrote:On July 16 2010 17:11 ayadew wrote:
When you build something as terran, be sure to shift-click on a mineral patch (or something else) just after you order a building constructed, else your SCV will be idle after the building is complete
When ordering workers to go to a completed geyser harvester, shift-click on your main, then on the harvester. If the workers still has minerals in their hands it won't be lost this way. I didnt know you could click on the main I was pressing return cargo or whatever its called after i clicked the geyser. That is good to know. -Select workers -Right click on gas -Press C (return cargo) This is faster than shift clicking on your nexus. The workers will still harvest gas after you ask them to return whatever cargo they may have had, and any workers without cargo will be unaffected by the return cargo command.
Thanks for this - I didn't know that. It seems counter-intuitive that they still go to gas if the last command you give them is to return minerals, but I'm not complaining.
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Any way to have overlords automatically generate creep when you hit lair tech? Or do you just need to add them all to a control group as you make them?
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You don't need to add them to a control group, you just need to select them all and press whatever the hotkey is to make them drop creep.
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On July 18 2010 13:54 Zombo Joe wrote:
You don't need to add them to a control group, you just need to select them all and press whatever the hotkey is to make them drop creep.
Well yes, but that's quite a lot of time spent. >.<
What I usually do is add each overlord to a control group as it's made, and once I hit lair tech, I go to that control group and hit G. Just wondering if there was an easier way is all.
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Something I haven't seen mentioned yet is that you can hotkey larva and they will maintain the hotkey when they are an egg and right through to whatever unit you morph them to.
Additionally, I believe you can add larva, or eggs, to an existing control group using the standard shift - # (whatever number you choose) so they are already part of the control group once they hatch.
Another technique I use to help a bit with setting independent rally points for eggs is to ctrl-click the wireframes for eggs and larva. For example, my hatcheries are all hotkey 5 so I will press 5s to select all larva and then start morphing units. I might press "dddd" for 4 drones and click a mineral field at an unsaturated base to rally them there then I will ctrl-click one of the wireframes of the remaining larva and all the remaining larva are selected (the eggs are deselected). Then I press maybe "hhhh" for 4 hydralisks. Then I will ctrl-click one of the egg wireframes to select only the eggs and deselect any remaining larva and add the eggs to a control group.
Of course the units can be hotkeyed and added to control groups after they hatch, but on the chance I am being attacked at that point, I may not have the APM to spare, so I try to spread my APM out whenever I can.
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Don't know if it's been said. But if you have a ctrl-group of lots of different units you can ctrl-click on their icon, and that will select only that unit type.
Personally use it all the time.
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On July 17 2010 00:15 onmach wrote:
As zerg you can hotkey a drone before it morphs into a building and the building will end up in that control group. Sometimes I do that when I make my nat hatchery, bh, shift+5. The problem is that with a drone in the control group you can't select larvae until it turns into a building. Actually I wouldn't be surprised if you could tab to get back to the hatchery, I should try that next time.
This isn't what happens with me. I add the drone to make my natural into my main hatch's hotkey, and it disappears from it the moment it starts building. Maybe this is a more recent development?
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On July 18 2010 16:08 Nifarious wrote:Show nested quote +On July 17 2010 00:15 onmach wrote:
As zerg you can hotkey a drone before it morphs into a building and the building will end up in that control group. Sometimes I do that when I make my nat hatchery, bh, shift+5. The problem is that with a drone in the control group you can't select larvae until it turns into a building. Actually I wouldn't be surprised if you could tab to get back to the hatchery, I should try that next time. This isn't what happens with me. I add the drone to make my natural into my main hatch's hotkey, and it disappears from it the moment it starts building. Maybe this is a more recent development?
I think that it'll save the building if you put the morphing drone into its own control group.
Basically, I tend to hotkey my hatches to 5. If I hotkey a drone to 5 and then morph it, the building won't be in the group. But, if I hotkey the drone into an empty group - say, 6, for me - the group WILL contain the hatch when it finishes. Really, it's not TOO useful, but I've started to do it anyway just because it's slightly easier to 6, shift+5, q than it is to click back to the new hatch.
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This has really helped my spreading my creep tumors.
Every time you vomit more larvae check your creep tumor and expand it regardless if it has not expanded. Soon enough you'll have larvae at his natural expansion:D
Also, my hotkeys for new zerg players, remember, to each their own.
Hotkey 1 - all hatcheries
hotkey 2- queen #1
hotkey 3- queen #2
hotkey 4- queen #3
Press 2 twice, vomit larva, press 3 twice, vomit larva, press 4 twice, vomit larva, creep tumor.
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EPT
