I was just wondering. As a piano player, I use my thumbs a lot, to tap the Spacebar, and anything that has anything to do with Hotkeys 1-3 I use my thumb with.

In fact, I hotkey my Buildings to 1-3, and armies 4-0.

I got kinda curious because I started to notice that no one else (my friends, people I've seen, etc.) uses their thumbs, and I don't want to be the only person in the world that uses their thumbs. Lol.

valheru

Australia966 Posts

January 22 2011 03:59 GMT

If you can use your thumbs do it it's just an advantage (maybe). Personally I don't use my thumbs since my hands don't have a problem reaching across the keyboard.

Smurphy

United States374 Posts

January 22 2011 04:00 GMT

How do you use your thumbs for hotkeys 1-3? A right handed person using a standard setup has their right hand on the mouse and their left hand centered on the a-s-d-f keys. The thumb would be over the spacebar. By default, hotkeys 1-3 and on the number keys 1-3. The thumb would not be a logical choice of finger to press those keys.

I setup spacebar as team #0 I assign my command centers/nexus/hatcheries to #0. I use my thumb on spacebar to make more workers. Also I have a thumb button on my mouse. I use that to center the camera on a base. I can press the thumb key rapidly to cycle through bases.

skyR

Canada13817 Posts

January 22 2011 04:00 GMT

I think its pretty normal to use your thumb to press spacebar, alt, and most keys on the bottom row.

BadWolf0

United States300 Posts

January 22 2011 04:01 GMT

yup I play guitar flamenco style and piano and I use my thumb for every ability (inject, fungal, corruption) and spacebar to flip between bases. I showed one of my friends it and it helped him start with FFs so I feel like its definately always a good thing to use more fingers (duh.) A note (you probly kno as a piano player) ... keep your wrists straight because prolonged bent wrist/thumb stresses your carpal nerve. dunno if it helps but I gave myself early carpals at 16 from a combination of keyboard/classical guitar so I always pass that along.

Shifft

Canada1085 Posts

January 22 2011 04:03 GMT

Sure I use my thumb for xcvb and 8-0.

XDJuicebox

United States593 Posts

January 22 2011 04:04 GMT

I park my ring-index fingers on 1-3 respectively, and I tilt my thumb in just a little so that my thumb rests on the s key. And I guess I should've worded that better, whenever hotkeys 1-3 are selected, I use my thumb to tell them what to do.

For example, if I have my CC on 1 and my Rax on 2 and my Scouting SCV on 3, I'll hit
1 with my ring finger, s with my thumb, 2 with my middle finger, a with my thumb, and doubletap 3 with my index finger to shoot me back

I don't actually tap 1-3 with my thumb lol that's just stupid ><

According to my friends, my left hand never moves...

I'm a lefty by the way, but I still use the standard hotkey setup with my right hand on the mouse

avilo

United States4100 Posts

January 22 2011 04:05 GMT

I use my thumb for the control key when re-hotkeying, and also for the 'a' key in 1a2a3a. I also use my thumb for space bar.

uSnAmplified

United States1029 Posts

January 22 2011 04:08 GMT

My thumb is pretty much hardwired to hit spacebar, was the jump key in WoW.

Even when i play other games i instinctively press spacebar to jump, even if its not the right key

Farkinator

United States283 Posts

January 22 2011 04:12 GMT

#10

On January 22 2011 12:57 XDJuicebox wrote:
I was just wondering. As a piano player, I use my thumbs a lot, to tap the Spacebar, and anything that has anything to do with Hotkeys 1-3 I use my thumb with.

In fact, I hotkey my Buildings to 1-3, and armies 4-0.

I got kinda curious because I started to notice that no one else (my friends, people I've seen, etc.) uses their thumbs, and I don't want to be the only person in the world that uses their thumbs. Lol.

Haha I've never thought about that. I have pretty large hands which I've always attributed to playing the piano since I was 5. I have no trouble reaching all across the keyboard and using 1-0 (Hell I've experimented with classic hotkey settings just for giggles to see if it feels more comfortable)

XDJuicebox

United States593 Posts

January 22 2011 04:14 GMT

#11

On January 22 2011 13:12 Farkinator wrote:

Haha I've never thought about that. I have pretty large hands which I've always attributed to playing the piano since I was 5. I have no trouble reaching all across the keyboard and using 1-0 (Hell I've experimented with classic hotkey settings just for giggles to see if it feels more comfortable)

I've been playing since I was 8, a little late for the typical asian nerd lol

I rarely go past hotkey 8, only when I'm trying to hotkey like a bunch of different groups of army lol. I think my reason for sucking at Brood War for always missing the 0 key, and not calling up my scans fast enough, and just dying to Lurkers. Haha

Bonham

Canada655 Posts

January 22 2011 04:17 GMT

#12

Thumbs up! I use my thumb on the spacebar and hotkeying from 8-0, which (probably to my detriment) happens about once a game. Doesn't everyone use their thumb for space?

Deleted User 135096

3624 Posts

January 22 2011 04:18 GMT

#13

Since I moved my 'town camera' from [backspace] to [spacebar] I use my thumb quite a bit now. Also, my normal hand position is in the normal typing position.

Being that you have a considerable piano background, I'm not really surprised that you use your fingers/thumb in that position as that is also the normal position of the hand when playing piano and the allows for a pretty typical pivotal movement of the thumb when moving around.

Mwentworth56

146 Posts

January 22 2011 04:18 GMT

#14

I dont think useing your thumbs is as fast but whatever works =)

XDJuicebox

United States593 Posts

January 22 2011 04:22 GMT

#15

Wait...there's a button for Town Camera? What is this? How does it work? Lol

I use F1-F8 to hotkey screens, and I currently use that use that to cycle between bases lol

Very Brood War esque

ZeromuS

Canada13389 Posts

January 22 2011 04:27 GMT

#16

Nothing wrong with using our thumbs. I use mine for the keys on the bottom row and also the space bar. If it works for you keep doing it basically

Kinetik_Inferno

United States1431 Posts

January 22 2011 04:31 GMT

#17

g h j b n space bar

thats it

darklordjac

Canada2231 Posts

January 22 2011 04:32 GMT

#18

I use it rarely only for stretching for ctrl 9/0, mostly use the right control key for that

Yoshi Kirishima

United States10331 Posts

January 22 2011 04:38 GMT

#19

Even if your thumb is stronger, i don't think its effective to do that... army wise at least, you won't be able to cycle through your army (if you use only 1 control group you shouldn't!) fast enough. If you think about it your thumb will have to move 4 times as fast as your other fingers since its 1 finger versus 4 fingers basically. And you will need your thumb for the lower part of the keyboard for buttons like "B" for building.

At least, this is what I think of only after a couple minutes

XDJuicebox

United States593 Posts

January 22 2011 04:47 GMT

#20

I don't use my thumb for the A button when I'm going to control groups 4-6, which is where my army usually is.

Another reason why I sucked in brood war was because I hit 1a2a3a a's on my thumb, and then I'd twist and hit 4a5a6a7a8a9a0a with my index and pinky lol.