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Everything discussed in this article also applies to other abilities that require you to target terrain or other units, such as EMP or Transfusions
What most people know:
To throw down forcefields quickly without having to F-click, F-click, F-click, over and over again, you can hold down the F key and place as many forcefields as you want without having to press F multiple times. This comes with one disadvantage though. If you press and hold F, and start rapidly clicking on your opponent's army to cast forcefields TOO QUICKLY after pressing F, you will deselect your sentries and target one of your opponent's units instead.
*NOTE* - On the topic of Shift-commands
+ Show Spoiler +The problem with Shifl-Clicking is that this will queue up the forcefield command instead of forcing the sentry to do it immediately.
Out of combat, shift clicking is fine, but if you engage with your sentries before you cast any forcefields, shift-click forcefielding will queue up a forcefield command to be cast AFTER the sentry finishes attacking, instead of just forcing it to forcefield immidiately by holding F and clicking. This will cause the forcefields to net be cast untill all the enemy units are dead, in which case the forcefields wont help at all
How to fix this:
Almost everybody knows that when you hold a key down on your keyboard, the character you pressed on the keyboard will, AFTER A SMALL DELAY, be typed over and over again on your screen.
This concept also affects abilities within the game (such as forcefields). When you, for example, press and hold F, the forcefield command will be given over and over in quick succession. This is what allows consecutive casting of forcefields while holding F.
However, as mentioned before, if you start rapidly clicking on your opponent's army to cast forcefields TOO QUICKLY after pressing F, you will deselect your sentries and target one of your opponent's units instead. This happens because you started clicking DURING THAT SMALL DELAY MENTIONED BEFORE between you holding the F key, and the command being repeatedly triggered.
There is no way to completely remove this window of time in which forcefields cannot be cast more than once, but you CAN make this window of time significantly shorter by setting your character repeat delay to "Fast"
(for windows) Follow the following instructions to set the character repeat delay to fast:
Step 1: Click on the Start Button (in the lower left hand corner of the screen)
Step 2: Click the "Search programs and files" field and type "Keyboard"
Step 3: Select "Keyboard" under Control Panel
Step 4: Set "Character Repeat Delay" to Short (furthest to the right, default is 3/4 of the way)
-NOTE- Setting the character repeat Rate to Fast might also minimize problems while forcefielding if it is too low.
While this does not completely remove the window of time in which you will lose target of your sentries when throwing down forcefields, the amount of time you have to wait after initially pressing F is much lower, allowing faster forcefields
NOTE- taking the previous steps will also affect word processing programs and everywhere else you type
Please dont post saying that you just use shift commands to forcefields unless you are ABSELOUTELY CERTAIN you have a way to make shift-commands work
UPDATE:
An article on this topic is now up on http://sc2tips.blogspot.com/2011/05/force-field-delay-when-holding-down-f.html.
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I think this is common knowledge, I've been using this for.. forever.
Good thread anyway. People should use this if they aren't already.
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That's why I was losing control of my sentries =/
I even have it set on fast, guess I'll just f click f click now
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On May 10 2011 07:58 Sinok wrote:
I think this is common knowledge, I've been using this for.. forever.
Good thread anyway. People should use this if they aren't already.
Yes, most people already know that they can hold F and cast forcefields, but i have met many people who complain over selecting enemy units while casting forcefields, and thereby losing control over their army
I hope this helps a few of those people 
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On May 10 2011 08:01 Soulish wrote:
That's why I was losing control of my sentries =/
I even have it set on fast, guess I'll just f click f click now
There is no way (as far as i know) to completely remove the window of time between pressing F and casting forcefields
HOWEVER, if you just press F and wait like 0.2 seconds, you can cast as many forcefields without pressing F as you want without having to fear losing control of your sentries
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You can also F+shift + click click click. That's what I do to warp units. For force fields I always did F click F click though. I feel very comfortable with it.
I didn't know that the delay was linked with the windows repetition thing though. Interesting!
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Usually I just F click, guess I will try using this method after I test it out.
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Oh, mine was set to the second furthest from the left. Hoping this helps to have it on the farthest left, thanks!
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I just f click f click too.
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On May 10 2011 08:08 Temporarykid wrote:
Oh, mine was set to the second furthest from the left. Hoping this helps to have it on the farthest left, thanks!
STOP! You need to set it to Short (farthest to the right) in order to minimize the window of time in which you cannot forcefield. Moving it left will have the opposite effect :S
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On May 10 2011 08:04 iNbluE wrote:
You can also F+shift + click click click. That's what I do to warp units. For force fields I always did F click F click though. I feel very comfortable with it.
I didn't know that the delay was linked with the windows repetition thing though. Interesting!
The problem with this method is that you cannot forcefield while attacking, since the forcefield command will be queued up to be cast after the sentry stops attacking enemy units (Atleast that happened the last time i tried that method)
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i've tried hold down buttons to warp in units and forcefield and it just doesn't feel right. f-click, f-click, to me at least, seems to "flow" better and accurate.
i hold down only when making units from larvae. or making the first dozen workers.
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On May 10 2011 08:22 jinorazi wrote:
i've tried hold down buttons to warp in units and forcefield and it just doesn't feel right. f-click, f-click, to me at least, seems to "flow" better and accurate.
i hold down only when making units from larvae. or making the first dozen workers.
Everyone has their preferences. I find holding F to be much faster, especially when walling off big portions of the map / splitting armies
Setting the Character repeat delay to Short will also make you mass-produce units from larvae faster.
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On May 10 2011 07:58 Sinok wrote:
I think this is common knowledge, I've been using this for.. forever.
Good thread anyway. People should use this if they aren't already.
Someone didn't read the entire post.
Thanks OP this has proven quite useful!
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On May 10 2011 08:15 Jerokar wrote:Show nested quote +On May 10 2011 08:04 iNbluE wrote:
You can also F+shift + click click click. That's what I do to warp units. For force fields I always did F click F click though. I feel very comfortable with it.
I didn't know that the delay was linked with the windows repetition thing though. Interesting! edit: I was wrong, the fallowing only works if your sentries don't attack anything yet! The problem with this method is that you cannot forcefield while attacking, since the forcefield command will be queued up to be cast after the sentry stops attacking enemy units (Atleast that happened the last time i tried that method)
That happens if you hold shift before pressing F, however if you press F first and then hold shift + click they cast immeadiately. That's because in the first case you queue the forcefield order in a regular shift queue.
I use the shift method because I was used to it from war3 and to be honest I didn't even know you could hold down F.
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On May 10 2011 08:30 thesmoosh wrote:
Why not shiftclick?
The problem with Shifl-Clicking is that this will queue up the forcefield command instead of forcing the sentry to do it immediately.
Out of combat, shift clicking is fine, but if you engage with your sentries before you cast any forcefields, shift-click forcefielding will queue up a forcefield command to be cast AFTER the sentry finishes attacking, instead of just forcing it to forcefield immidiately by holding F and clicking. This will cause the forcefields to net be cast untill all the enemy units are dead, in which case the forcefields wont help at all
Hope that made sense 
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On May 10 2011 08:45 eezyBash wrote:Show nested quote +On May 10 2011 08:15 Jerokar wrote:On May 10 2011 08:04 iNbluE wrote:
You can also F+shift + click click click. That's what I do to warp units. For force fields I always did F click F click though. I feel very comfortable with it.
I didn't know that the delay was linked with the windows repetition thing though. Interesting! The problem with this method is that you cannot forcefield while attacking, since the forcefield command will be queued up to be cast after the sentry stops attacking enemy units (Atleast that happened the last time i tried that method) That happens if you hold shift before pressing F, however if you press F first and then hold shift + click they cast immeadiately. That's because in the first case you queue the forcefield order in a regular shift queue. I use the shift method because I was used to it from war3 and to be honest I didn't even know you could hold down F.
After spending some time in a unit-tester map, i still find that a shift-command will not be executed untill the sentries have finished their current command, even if F is pressed before shift.
Please correct me if i am wrong, but i believe that holding F is the only way to forcefield without interrupting their current command first
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f click is just more fluid for me. Sure, holding F is faster, but I don't feel like I'm in as much control
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On May 10 2011 09:15 lazydino wrote:
f click is just more fluid for me. Sure, holding F is faster, but I don't feel like I'm in as much control
It certainly takes a lot more time getting used to your mouse speed/accuracy, since it is a bit hard to actually see where your curser is while you are holding F and clicking rapidly. It is nice to be able to trap units quickly though ^^
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Oh wow, this is why I somehow deselect my sentries sometimes and end up getting trounced in battle. Good to see the detailed reason of how and why this happens.
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Can't you press stop command, and then do shift + F and click click click? I feel like that might stop the sentries from doing that annoying thing where they move to a point before casting.
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On May 10 2011 09:33 KimJongChill wrote:
Can't you press stop command, and then do shift + F and click click click? I feel like that might stop the sentries from doing that annoying thing where they move to a point before casting.
This does not work since the sentries will automatically start re-attacking nearby enemy units if they are ordered to stop. The forcefield will still happen AFTER the enemy units are dead
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Omg, how did I not know of this! As soon as I changed it, I tested it on word and just began to laugh because it felt so obvious... yet I didn't know about it. Good thread sir.
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i dont play toss as a main race but i always found it easy to just f+click every FF, like any other spell.
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You don't know how many games I've lost with this problem. I used to f-click f-click f-click but after switching to holding the button for forcefields (and warp-ins) I started having this problem when an engagement was catching me off-guard. Will definitely put this to use. Thanks a lot!
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Thank you ssssssssssssssssssssooooooooooooooo much for this 
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aha! I can't tell you how many times I've held F and ended up selecting an enemy unit, totally gotten obliterated because of the mismicro it caused, and then blamed myself because 'I must have let go of the F key in the heat of the moment'. The mystery is solved, thank you!
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On May 10 2011 08:04 iNbluE wrote:
You can also F+shift + click click click. That's what I do to warp units. For force fields I always did F click F click though. I feel very comfortable with it.
I didn't know that the delay was linked with the windows repetition thing though. Interesting!
you cant f shit click because it will not be an insta cast :p
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On my Arch Linux box I have these commands in my .xinitrc to disable mouse acceleration and increase the repeat rate to a godly level:
$ xset mouse 1/1
$ xset r rate 200 100
With an army of 52 sentries, I literally cannot spamclick fast enough to deselect any of them while using this technique.
The only downside of playing SC2 on Linux is that you get a terrible framerate because all of the DirectX calls are emulated using OpenGL. (Plus all sorts of nasty artifacts on ATI cards.) My GTX 550 Ti gets a smooth framerate of maybe 40 fps on low settings.
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Just Press F and think "i have to wait for 1s" And then click anywhere u want
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This really changed my game as zerg when I found out because you can make units from larvae a lot more quickly.
OP, I don't think you should have even talked about "Fast-Forcefield" as a topic, it's really a keyboard setting. A player should realize the many situations for which this tip comes in handy. It's good information to know, but doesn't deserve to be in the strategy forum.
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First of all, all Zerg might as well do this, it helps with unit production when you hold down something to make a ton of a type of unit.
It's more important to plant your forcefields precisely than quickly.
Though both are important to get any effect what we need is not to get it faster, but to get them better. Admit it, we've all done at least one battle where we overlapped forcefields like shi and there were still holes we would've plugged up, had we not wasted the majority of our forcefields.
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Someone didn't read the entire post.
Thanks OP this has proven quite useful!
Someone underestimated the amount of times this information has been shared.
But once again, thanks for sharing.
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On May 10 2011 08:47 Jerokar wrote:The problem with Shifl-Clicking is that this will queue up the forcefield command instead of forcing the sentry to do it immediately. Out of combat, shift clicking is fine, but if you engage with your sentries before you cast any forcefields, shift-click forcefielding will queue up a forcefield command to be cast AFTER the sentry finishes attacking, instead of just forcing it to forcefield immidiately by holding F and clicking. This will cause the forcefields to net be cast untill all the enemy units are dead, in which case the forcefields wont help at all Hope that made sense
Thank you for solving my problem with fungals with this thread.
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So is it more recommended to set it all the way to the right or to the left?
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Actually didn't know that, going to be hard to change though considering I'm already used to repeated F clicking lol
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Thank you very much! This is a fantastic tip
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You sir are a genius.
Wow, it's even nice in everyday word processing, as I just backspaced some text while typing this comment!
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Huge thanks to the OP. This'll improve my FF, Storm and Warp mechanics by miles. /salute
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Thanks. Whenever I play toss, I usually f click, f click. Didn't know about this method. D:
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On May 10 2011 14:02 Yoshi Kirishima wrote:Someone underestimated the amount of times this information has been shared. But once again, thanks for sharing.
I apologise i am wrong, but from what ive seen (looking through the forrums, using the search potion), noone has made any post explaining how character repeat delay affects ingame abilities.
Also, i am happy that this is helping. It sure drove me crazy when i kept on accidentally targeting enemy units while forcefielding.
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ty very much, I always am targeting enemy units when I ff
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OMG...As i masters protoss i still had this problem T-T I have not tried this yet, but i already put the new settings so i hope it works! Thank you so much you have made my life so much easier. ^_^
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ive just been doing f shift click click click
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To use shift + F effectively you need to have your sentries on a separate hotkey, hit s to clear any commands they have, then use shift + f. Otherwise you can have some epic fail late forcefields. This also works pretty well for psi storm.
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On May 11 2011 00:11 xixecal wrote:
To use shift + F effectively you need to have your sentries on a separate hotkey, hit s to clear any commands they have, then use shift + f. Otherwise you can have some epic fail late forcefields. This also works pretty well for psi storm.
f first then shift for placement works without hitting s i believe, id have to test.
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On May 11 2011 00:16 polysciguy wrote:Show nested quote +On May 11 2011 00:11 xixecal wrote:
To use shift + F effectively you need to have your sentries on a separate hotkey, hit s to clear any commands they have, then use shift + f. Otherwise you can have some epic fail late forcefields. This also works pretty well for psi storm. f first then shift for placement works without hitting s i believe, id have to test.
This will affect all sentries not engaged in combat, and possibly one sentry that is in combat (if it is the closest to the region you have selected for forcefield). The remaining sentries in combat will not have had the forcefield order applied to them.
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Might be an obvious tip for long time bw players and such but I definetly appreciate it. Thanks, it helped
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On May 11 2011 00:25 JinDesu wrote:Show nested quote +On May 11 2011 00:16 polysciguy wrote:On May 11 2011 00:11 xixecal wrote:
To use shift + F effectively you need to have your sentries on a separate hotkey, hit s to clear any commands they have, then use shift + f. Otherwise you can have some epic fail late forcefields. This also works pretty well for psi storm. f first then shift for placement works without hitting s i believe, id have to test. This will affect all sentries not engaged in combat, and possibly one sentry that is in combat (if it is the closest to the region you have selected for forcefield). The remaining sentries in combat will not have had the forcefield order applied to them.
Correct! The sentries out of combat will cast forcefields, but the sentries that are in range of enemy units will NOT CAST FORCEFIELDS using a shift command
The reason they wont is: A shift command orders your units to perform the selected action AFTER they have finished their current action. Even though pressing S will clear their command queue, they will INSTANTLY re-engage nearby enemy units, making shift commands ineffective when casting forcefields unless sentries are out of combat, in which case they generally wont be very effective anyways
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so just to clarify, does this also work with other spell casting units such as ghosts? I find that using abilities like snipe and EMP kind of a burden >.< with all this e click e click etc etc and the same applies to snipe.
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On May 11 2011 09:43 qazqwezxc wrote:
so just to clarify, does this also work with other spell casting units such as ghosts? I find that using abilities like snipe and EMP kind of a burden >.< with all this e click e click etc etc and the same applies to snipe.
As stated in the very first sentence of the post: "Everything discussed in this article also applies to other abilities that require you to target terrain or other units, such as EMP or Transfusions"
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Northern Ireland2557 Posts
i just do shift stop -> shift spam F...
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Will this help for snipe? I assume it would, but since you are actually clicking on a unit and not just an area while holding 'R', I'm 100% on that.
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I didnt know this and I am a master zerg. This should greatly help my gameplay as well ty.
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It all makes sense now...
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On May 11 2011 09:58 Maliris wrote:
i just do shift stop -> shift spam F...
Its UNBELIEVABLE how many people dont understand how shift commands work... You must have lost many games by not being able to throw down any forcefields
As i stated before, shift commands will not work when throwing down forcefields when your sentries are in combat
I guess i will have to edit this into the OP...
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Thanks for the tip this will help me so much!
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Been holding down F since forever. I guess it will help those who don't know how to do it
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On May 11 2011 23:03 Valckrie wrote:
Been holding down F since forever. I guess it will help those who don't know how to do it
Please read before posting...
The thread isnt only about holding about F, but how to set your computer settings to make it more effective
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Northern Ireland2557 Posts
On May 11 2011 20:39 Jerokar wrote:Its UNBELIEVABLE how many people dont understand how shift commands work... You must have lost many games by not being able to throw down any forcefields As i stated before, shift commands will not work when throwing down forcefields when your sentries are in combatI guess i will have to edit this into the OP...
its UNBELIEVABLE how slow you must be to fail at this. I have NEVER failed doing this.
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On May 11 2011 23:12 Maliris wrote:Show nested quote +On May 11 2011 20:39 Jerokar wrote:On May 11 2011 09:58 Maliris wrote:
i just do shift stop -> shift spam F... Its UNBELIEVABLE how many people dont understand how shift commands work... You must have lost many games by not being able to throw down any forcefields As i stated before, shift commands will not work when throwing down forcefields when your sentries are in combatI guess i will have to edit this into the OP... its UNBELIEVABLE how slow you must be to fail at this. I have NEVER failed doing this.
It has nothing to do with being slow. It has nothing to to with failing or not failing.
It has something to do with how a shift command works. If you press shift-S to try to get your sentries to stop firing and cast forcefields, THEY WILL NOT STOP ATTACKING since the shift command makes them do it AFTER THEY FINISH ATTACKING
Not´to sound too offensive, but please do not pretend to be able to do things that the game mechanics do not allow unless you have solid proof that it somehow magically works
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Very nice tip, I haven't tried that before while being in Master. I guess it's everyone their own, but if it decreasing FF casting time, it's always very important.
OgsMC usually practices his FF before matches, he told in an interview. It's one of the things which makes him so sharp and strong.
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Sometimes when I try to feedback really fast this happens too, I end up selecting a medivac, I am pumped to try this out : )
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On May 12 2011 00:34 Jerokar wrote:Show nested quote +On May 11 2011 23:12 Maliris wrote:On May 11 2011 20:39 Jerokar wrote:On May 11 2011 09:58 Maliris wrote:
i just do shift stop -> shift spam F... Its UNBELIEVABLE how many people dont understand how shift commands work... You must have lost many games by not being able to throw down any forcefields As i stated before, shift commands will not work when throwing down forcefields when your sentries are in combatI guess i will have to edit this into the OP... its UNBELIEVABLE how slow you must be to fail at this. I have NEVER failed doing this. It has nothing to do with being slow. It has nothing to to with failing or not failing. It has something to do with how a shift command works. If you press shift-S to try to get your sentries to stop firing and cast forcefields, THEY WILL NOT STOP ATTACKING since the shift command makes them do it AFTER THEY FINISH ATTACKINGNot´to sound too offensive, but please do not pretend to be able to do things that the game mechanics do not allow unless you have solid proof that it somehow magically works
Jerokar is 100% CORRECT!!!! please listen to him
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Thanks Jerokar for the tips. Good job in the find. Its always good when someone discovers something new.
Cheers.
sc2tips.blogspot.com
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Pressing and hold the F key (or E for EMP etc) is more efficient and precise than just f click f click, in fact you can actually get out about twice as many FF or EMP in the same about of time just by holding.
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I think its up to the player's preference. I am more used to f click f click. Im using z click z click even for warping ins. I'm not too sure what MC is using. Any1?
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1. select sentries
2. move command your sentries slightly - long enough to allow you to queue your desired forcefields
3. hold shift + F click
= sentries move then stop and drop forcefields instantly
sometimes it's not worth it though, because being able to see the effect of each forcefield is beneficial for placing the subsequent FF's.
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so I'm guessing with EMP I can just hold E and click click click ?
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On May 14 2011 17:13 ShooTouts wrote:
so I'm guessing with EMP I can just hold E and click click click ?
As i sayd in the VERY FIRST sentence of my post, yes, this also applies to EMP and snipe
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wouldn't this make lings or marines queue faster? you could select your barracks and hold down the marine key to queue them up slightly faster.
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Canada13386 Posts
On May 15 2011 03:08 Terranist wrote:
wouldn't this make lings or marines queue faster? you could select your barracks and hold down the marine key to queue them up slightly faster.
It would but you dont want to queue marines and with lings its quick enough that the game wont really know the difference but I can see the application for Zerg players
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This made me realize what I was doing wrong. Thanks!
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thank you SO much for this
for some reason my computer was set to 2/4 and after swapping it to 4/4 i can finally hold down F instead of F-click F-click
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thx, good find.
i lost some games with fungal growth the same way like you describe it here with FF
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This defiantly makes holding down the keys more useful.
I never hold down the keys tho :S habit
On May 14 2011 15:51 hoax0000 wrote:
Pressing and hold the F key (or E for EMP etc) is more efficient and precise than just f click f click, in fact you can actually get out about twice as many FF or EMP in the same about of time just by holding.
Erm not to sure about this. I f-click f-click out of habit purely as holding it with this decreased delay will obviously be pressing f FASTER but how can you say its more precise?
I also feel like the time it takes to press f is about the time it takes to move my mouse over 6 squares and i feel more accurate because i find it a little easier to keep track of them and press for each one. Don't want too much overlap u know.
errbody should know shift clicking doesn't work when the sentries are engaged.
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good point, although it has been out for a while. shift clicks are usefull but they can easly be overused in which case it could be a bad thing.
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On May 10 2011 14:02 Yoshi Kirishima wrote:Someone underestimated the amount of times this information has been shared. But once again, thanks for sharing.
If you read the post that I quoted you would notice how it was worded clearly implied that he has been using "hold F click click click". Not changing windows settings to reduce the delay after an initial key press.
Thanks for trying though.
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EPT
