[G] TheCore - Advanced Keyboard Layout - Page 197

Intelligentsia.... I got a chuckle out of that. Please don't mistake me for somehow being a guru at this, I am just passionate about it and try to try my best

Prelim: it is important to realize that anyone coming off of standard or grid likely has not had the use of all control groups. Ours are some of the best keys possible to hit, so we have access to all of them, and I think it is worth abusing.

Suggested control groups are hard. On one hand, we want to have the most used control groups on the most functional keys in conjunction with likely combinations of other cgs and abilities. In this paradigm, we want control groups to be rigid, so that you can associate a button with a unit/ combination of units. On the other hand, zerg has lots of control groupable units that all have very different functions. It also has the ability to use and have any combination of units at some point in a given long enough game. This means that we want flexible control groups which are game and situation dependent.

After watching replays of gms (not really watching... we were using ggtracker) to see what units are alive at the same time as other units, we tried to arrange the cgs following three principles. This is the "rigid version", (but just a suggestion):

1) ability units should be on the index finger whenever possible to allow for access to all abilities quickly.
2) highly synergistic combinations should be together or easily comboed.
3) priority for same fingered keys were determined by tech > resource value.

I'll outline what we did and why for zerg. The general logic applies to all the races, but if you would like to understand the t and p specifics, you should ask Jak. Also, bear in mind that this is my interpretation, and I could be very wrong. I will go in order of unit, and then say a word about structures.

P for hatches and shift P for queens are hopefully best explained by being awesome.

; for lings/ ultra. ; is the next best control group, lings are used more frequently then any other unit, and are used in every game, almost.

L for roaches/hydra. Great to have next to lings, since roaches and hydras make up the "army" units, most of the time. Roached have no abilities on the middle finger. Hydras have clear synergy with roaches. Same abilities, except no burrow move.

0 for banes. easy to combine with lings. Its middle finger ability is not time sensitive, and it is on a different row than the ling cg, so one will not press the wrong one by mistake.

9 for mutas. A no-ability unit that requires as most efficiency/speed as possible. Allows for easy combo with lings and banes. (Ideally we would have the three units be on three fingers. I am toying with the idea of 8 or k as a control group but i don't think it is worth it.)

- for Infestors. Best index key after ;

[ for vipers. Best index key after -. Allows evos on it as well which i will get to later.

' for corruptors and overseers. Not sure if one or either deserves their own cg, but they fly, have odd but useful abilities, and are necessary in many late games to deal with air and invis. I also dont know what else they would group well with otherwise.

= for Swarm hosts. Swarm hosts have four abilities, so need to be on index.

0 for broods. "But Ninjury, banes are on 0. You done goofed...". I know. We are by now running out of cgs, and through the ggtracker adventure, it seems like this is the best concession. If anyone had any other ideas for banes or hosts, I would love to hear em.

And ; for ultras: by late game, ultra might as well go with lings. Since lings are faster, after the cg is sent you can ctrl click the ultras or lings and manipulate manually. Again, running out of "rigid room".

A note on queens: Queens have 3 abilities which give them completely different functions. "inject queens" are special and get their own super modified control group. Lucky ladies. "creep queens" use "creep option 7", and therefore do not get control groups, until they become... "Battle queens!" Battle queens get put with broods because they are slow... maybe with lots of creep they should go into rangeland with hydras and roaches on L... not sure on this one.

Buildings go with "their" units to check upgrades in battle conveniently. This also reduces the use of next and previous subgroup on a ten-selection long upgrade group. It comes with 2 known downsides that I think are totally worth it. 1) With less than x units where x is between 1 and 4 depending on the unit, center on selection and double tap will return to the building. Sometimes. Annoying, but just use the mini map in these situations, imo. 2) If you try to a move without looking at the cg, and don't have any units, you may get an upgrade by accident. This is not a real problem, since if you did not have a building on the cg and tried to select and empty cg, you would still do something you may not want to (since you will have something selected before hand). If this second point doesn't make sense to you, it is likely because I am not explaining it well. Let me know and I will try again.

Evos go on [ because it is a good key, has three "abilities", and does not get occupied until hive tech. They are also the best building to mass for vipers, as I understand it.

I hope this helps. As you can see, it is quite tentative and very intuitive. The science behind it is mediocre at best, imo. Again, this is all my interpretation. While the facts about the layout are (I think) correct, my reasoning may be faulty. Jak made the final calls, so he may have some different reasoning than I do.

Please let me know if there are any questions you have, and definitely shout out any improvements we can make... I'm confident this is nowhere near perfect yet.