EPT[Q] Fkeys. To use or not to use. - Page 2
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Turo
Canada333 Posts
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Tal0n
United States175 Posts
of course besides jsut using them to center on all your bases, you could: -center on your rally point -center on popular drop-spots -center on buildings you dont want to hotkey (like CCs made to be turned into planetaries) and save the postion to a hotkey. there are many more things too. | ||
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Chrono000
Korea (South)358 Posts
My advice learn it while you can. Learn it while its easy. Learn them before inefficient techniques develop. | ||
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yoona2012
Denmark196 Posts
if you have a small hand or feel you cant reach the 7-8-9-0 keys there are several other ways to work around this problem, all better than giving up on your f-keys. The most "pro" way is to get have all your most common used hotkeys bound to 4-5-6-7, this way you´ll force yourself to get used to positioning your hand in the middle of they numbered-keys and thus being able to reach both 1 and 0 on same hand. If you cant get used to this method, you can rebind 7-8-9-0 to q-w-e-r and whatever the uses for those keys normally are to something else, this way you´ll 100% have all 10 numbered keys within reach very comfortably. 3rd option is to get a gamer keypad or gamer keyboard with extra buttons. The logitech G-series have 11-15 extra keys on the left side and can be extremely nice for gaming, and nostromo makes some nice gamerpads - but be aware not all tournaments allow gamerpads or non-standard keyboards. | ||
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RiceAgainst
United States1849 Posts
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Tarfire
Canada67 Posts
I did not used to use them because I thought they were sort of impractical, however once I started doing it every game it helped me play a lot better. I had apm of about 205-215. After incorporating things like this to keep my hands moving (even though camera keys don't count towards APM as far as I know), I started getting a lot faster in all areas, and I have an average now of 310. F1 = Screencap 1 F2 = Screencap 2 F3 = Screencap 3 F4 = Screencap 4 I don't have an idle worker key as I play Zerg and it's not that important for me. -- I use it if there is a drop in my base to quickly transfer drones. -- I use it to quickly jump to bases to build buildings when also micro'ing a battle (much faster than trying to click on your minimap). I also have spacebar switched to base camera, but with screencaps you always know which hatchery you will be seeing. -- I use it early game when im expanding and such. F1, Grab drone, hit F2, right click screen. Or, if I'm transferring a queen from main to 2nd/3rd. F1, grab queen, F2, right click. It speeds up this process of moving stuff around while allowing you to keep your mouse fairly centered instead of down at the minimap constantly, which can also be inaccurate. -- Also, say you play terran and you have your hellions on the edge of a zergs creep to prevent creep tumors. You want to constantly be checking them. If you hotkey the spot they are on to F1 lets say, and your base is F2. Instead of double tapping 1 to see your hellions, then double tapping your CC hotkey to go back to base. you could simply hit F1, F2, quickly and continue to macro up. Hit those 2 keys F1, F2, every few seconds and you can keep a check that there aren't any tumors going down or lings about to run out for a surround. | ||
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HickleStine
Australia276 Posts
F3: natural F4: third F5: 4th F6: 5th F7: 6th ...etc up to f8-9 (I set them using Shift+Fkey) I'm still working on using F6,F7,F8,F9 but I've gotten pretty good with F2-5 and it makes it super efficient to manage your bases, transfer workers, build buildings, inject etc. Control group setups also become simpler when using this; you can have all your hatcheries/nexxi/command centers on a single hotkey and navigate your bases with F keys. If you rely on using the minimap/scrolling to move between your bases then it slows you down a lot. eg as zerg you can bind all your hatches to 5 and all your queens to 6, leaving 8 keys for army/upgrades/random overlords/overseers etc To get used to using them, you just have to make yourself play some games with it and get it ingrained into your system. Every time you rally a worker back to mine, inject, return to build a building, transfer workers to an expansion etc, FORCE yourself to use the f-key (even if you only start with 1 fkey for your main). Then start using the natural F-key as well, then 3rd base etc etc..... gl! EDIT: as for using f-keys as control groups so you don't have to reach across the keyboard: rebind 0 to ~ if you have to; other wise just man up and stretch your hand; in broodwar, the key to make probes/pylons was "P" and no one ever complained!  You have 10 number keys right there in a line; even if you have to move your hand to reach them, do it. It's better for your hand to keep it moving and you can improve your play a great deal by utilizing as many of them as you can. | ||
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Janders
Mexico222 Posts
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HaZeY.
Canada27 Posts
Anyways thats my stance I suppose. | ||
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HyperionDreamer
Canada1528 Posts
What's easier when moving drones from a drop: clicking on the minimap, selecting drones, then scrolling to another base, and clicking minerals, or f2 control-click f3 click on minerals. Takes like 1/8 the amount of time, and that's just one scenario. | ||
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Blazinghand
United States25560 Posts
Basically, any time you have to click the minimap (except to check on something that just came into view on the minimap or something), it's better to use a screen hotkey. Typical Screen hotkey uses:
There are other uses, but this is what I use them for, and it drastically cuts down on the amount of clicking I need to do. | ||
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Feor
Germany11 Posts
yes, but i rebound it as i found the distance uncomfortable for quick use.  | ||
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SamsLiST
Germany184 Posts
to force yourself using Fkeys reduce the scroll-speed of the mouse drastically for practice games you will automatically adapt to screenjumping (either via minimap. Fkeys or basecam) in very short time. You also want to give a-move commands on the minimap and not dragging your screen into fog of war... | ||
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covetousrat
2109 Posts
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BronzeKnee
United States5219 Posts
On April 20 2012 18:35 SamsLiST wrote: little advice: to force yourself using Fkeys reduce the scroll-speed of the mouse drastically for practice games you will automatically adapt to screenjumping (either via minimap. Fkeys or basecam) in very short time. You also want to give a-move commands on the minimap and not dragging your screen into fog of war... That is a great idea. Thank you. | ||
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iNViCiOUZ
Germany364 Posts
F1: Rax F2: Factory F3: Starport | ||
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Tazerenix
Australia340 Posts
From a protoss perspective, where I don't really need to screen hotkey rally points or anything of that sort, I can just screen hotkey each base I am going to take, and i can very quickly bounce between them in the late game to transfer workers, defend harass, make buildings, retreat and anything else that requires me to look at my base. | ||
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Wychwood
United Kingdom57 Posts
Speaking to the lack of reach point brought up, I have pretty small hands and play resting three fingers across 1,3&5. When I play Terran, I fill up my hotkey bar completely (1 for all bases, 2,3&4 for unit groups, 5 for barracks, 6 for factories, 7 for starports, 8 for ghost academies and tech labs, 9 for armories and 10 for engineering bays). I put my upgrade binds towards the top end as I will not jump to them as often, just to check progress, and I will only normally do that when I am macro-ing (unless I am checking upgrades before engaging). This kind of comes through in my zerg hotkeys too, although to a lesser extent (1 for all bases, 2,3&4 for unit groups, 5 for queens (rebound backspace method for injects), and then 9 for spires and 10 for evolution chambers). Still keeping upgrades on further end of the keyboard as I will not have to hit them as often. (TL:DR-ish) Anyway, the main point was, I use the right hand end of hotkeys for less-visited buildings to allow me to keep my hand generally towards the left end. This allows me to make good use of F-keys for camera binds. | ||
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mrGRAPE
Singapore293 Posts
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Taefox
1533 Posts
F1 : main base F2 : nat F3 : 3rd nat | ||
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