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@eneyeseekay
i would love to put forward the idea of only selecting active units on the field (which are not under the "Hold" position) if we push the f2 button . it's a mere idea baby, we can't really do that in the game atm. but i am more than happy if Blizzard would take my suggestion into account so that players could play the game better. if we could use the f1 feature for idle workers only, i don't see why we cannot do the same for units under the "Hold" (h) position. This will help players to play Starcraft 2 more efficiently and enjoy the gaming experience even more. ^____^
This will help in making Sc2 a more user friendly in general .Thank You !
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Finally have gathered the courage to try alloy out after playing with standard since beta, but before I do, how does spacebar work? Still don't really understand that...
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Why you copy my hotkeys? Oo
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Every time I see this thread, I think it will explain to me how to hotkey a Protoss air army effectively. "How shall I hotkey my tempests??"
Needless to say, I smile every time :D
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@Ullis
Yeah that's why I decided to flesh out a complete and condensed hotkey layout based around using the left side keys, it's what most other players and I are used to and it's easier to transition in and out of. Yeah you can train your muscle memory to do all kinds of things but there's a reason why developers don't encourage highly unorthodox control schemes-- they want their games to be accessible for the majority of players.
With FK using Alt is the first big thing to get used to, and then I would say adjusting to the highly compact, pseudo-Grid format it features. This modified Grid is not hard to use, it's just not Standard so unless you were proactive/aware of changing hotkeys from the get-go, there will always be that little Grid adjustment to get used to. Instead of learning the letter of each unit you basically learn Command Cards, but the great thing is they all follow a pattern of Q,W,E first, and then any other commands. It's just simple. Any guesswork is cut down to a 1 in 3 chance to perform most actions you want, from about a 1 in 26 chance you'd have with Standard. You cut out a lot of room for error and eliminate a ton of reaching!
@Frost bitE
Oh.. So it's not some kind of hidden feature I wasn't aware of? Damn I was hoping it was because it sounded pretty handy. If you want Blizzard to see your idea, I would suggest hopping over here and posting in this forum. I don't think Blizzard pays attention to a thread like Fleet Keys, but there's a good chance they check out their Battle.net ones. I used to play a bunch of AoM and I'm sure that game has a similar feature, I can't see why idle workers and idle army units should be treated differently, but as of now they are.
After some thought about it, I could see players ordering their at-home army units to Hold and the active unit that's going to engage would be selected via a rapidfire idle army selection key, combined with a Move or Attack key for insane spreading/swarming action. If a feature like that existed good Baneling hits would be a rare occurrence haha. Then again, anything that wasn't a Colossus behind Force Fields would have their damage potential mitigated a lot.
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@ Daimai
All right, in the order you asked, explained for you and anyone else with the same questions:
1. Select Q-V keys means that Alt lets you access any Control Groups or Cameras that you decide to layer under Q-V. Q-V covers: Q,w,e,r,a,s,d,f,z,x,c,V. Anything outside of that and you are into reaching territory. I shortened it to Q-V because of room constraints on the sheet and it's just easier to say. Q-V doesn't mean you can ONLY use those keys though. You can use any key with Alt really (excluding Alt+Tab lol).
2. In Protoss & Terran, Space Bar (aka the Smart Key) functions as a key that you can use to perform a ton of actions with. I have it set up by default to do a lot of really common ones and many that require you to press keys that are not on the Q-R row, namely unit abilities. I list tons of examples of what the Smart Key handles on the cheat sheet you see in the OP (right-hand side of the sheets).
Some quick examples of what it does by default in P&T Alloy: Select a worker, hit Space Bar once, it opens the Build Basic Command Card, hit Space Bar again, and it selects Pylon/Supply Depot. Most of the work for keeping up your supply is taken care of for you by tapping the biggest key on your keyboard twice. Hitting Space Bar while you have Stalkers selected lets you Blink, Space Bar with Marines Stims them, Space Bar with Orbitals drops MULEs and on Nexus it activates Chronoboost, etc,etc.. It even lets you set up favorite researches for quick access or un-siege for a retreat. The Smart Key does a LOT for you, if you choose to use it that is. Keep in mind it's fully customizable, so change what you want if you don't like the default Smart Key bindings. It gives your thumb a lot of quick power and range.
In the OP check out the "Additional Info" section for more details of Smart Key and its uses and lots of other good stuff.
3. Since Alt+ selects Q-R, and Shift+ is used to add to all other CG's, it seems to fit in line with all that. Ctrl+ still creates/overwrites all CG's and Cameras, so nothing is changed there. Q-R are layered CG's but are also static ones so it had to be treated a little differently but in the most intuitive way possible.
PHEW lol..
@ No Soldier
0_o ?
@ZenithM
It's more of a reference to how a lot of things in the layout flow well and are quick to perform especially when controlling armies/making workers/checking production. I wonder if many others think the same thing as you. They read the title, shrug, and say "Well someone really likes air units.".
@Everyone
I updated the OP in a few spots. Nothing crazy was added or anything. I Added the Hybrid Settings 2.0 thread to the settings guide section, updated shout-outs, cleaned up the Smart Key section and editing of some other bodies of text for grammatical errors and clean-up.
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Thanks for the detailed write up, I think I understand it now!  One more question for the users of this playout, how do you access the Alt-keybindings (by that I mean, how do you hold your hand on the keyboard, what fingers do you use etc)? It feels pretty awkward for me to use alt in conjunction with another button to reach some control groups.
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On March 01 2014 17:28 Daimai wrote:+ Show Spoiler +Thanks for the detailed write up, I think I understand it now! One more question for the users of this playout, how do you access the Alt-keybindings (by that I mean, how do you hold your hand on the keyboard, what fingers do you use etc)? It feels pretty awkward for me to use alt in conjunction with another button to reach some control groups.
I like to relax my hand so that my thumb is laying pretty much straight, with my pinky on Caps Lock/Shift, and my ring/middle/index fingers on Q,W,E/D. Personally, the only keystrokes I find slightly awkward are Cameras 7 and 8 (Alt+C and V), and G. B, G and V are almost always left out because of this.
R or T might be awkward for you if you have smaller hands (this applies to Protoss and Terran production), so I included for R and T alternate bindings of A and S respectively. So what lies on R and T can also be accessed with A and S to reduce reaching. When you mouse over them in-game or check the bindings in the UI, it displays this. This is probably the optimal way to use them, but for the sake of appearing consistent and simple I have them displayed as R and T to follow Grid's appearance/theme.
Edit: I guess it looks something like this? The thumb usually sits a bit closer inwards depending on what is happening. It sort of follows any slight pivoting so it just kinda floats between Space and Alt (please pardon the Android Glimmer filter; I liked the colors :\ ).
+ Show Spoiler +
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Hi.
Love the setup and started practicing with the fleet keys, the thing is i also want to start playing random.
I see the difference between Z and T/P fleet key setups and understand why its set up the way it is and would like to use it the way they are, but since SC does not have a quick way (ie a hotkey) to to switch between different hotkey profiles i suppose i'll have to make sacrifices
Do you have any suggestions how random players can best use the recommended layouts together? Do you random players have any suggestion for me?
Thanks
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@ZedraC
I found that (personally) Caps Lock was a vastly better key for production than Tab (I just didn't edit the sheets yet), so when referring to the cheat sheets, just swap the Tab and Caps suggested CG uses (applies to all races).
As far as I know there's no quick or automated way to switch between hotkey profiles that doesn't require you to open up the menu.
I don't have a clear vision of what a "universal" kind of setup would look like off the top of my head, but I can throw some questions at you that might help you get an idea of what to consider should you make one. Who knows, maybe we could make a decent one that doesn't derail either race. - The big change is going to affect Space Bar's function. So the Keys we should look at are Tab, Caps Lock, Space Bar, Side Mouse Buttons as candidates for re-arrangement.
- How you prefer to Inject? Zerg could have the T/P Smart Key (which would be very cool) if Base Camera was moved to Tab. This means sacrificing your Queens CG on Tab for the Base Camera hotkey. Injects using Base Cam on Tab would look like: Base Cam, box-select Queen, Inject hatch. Offers more Control with less chance of wandering Queens, but is slightly slower than how it is now. You won't have to remove the Queen CG completely though, just add it to another key.
- Do you find the Smart Key's functionality beneficial?
Edit: So here's my proposal for a Random layout. I think the safest and sensible thing to do would be to fuse the Zerg Layout into the T/P layout to form a universal/Random FK Alloy layout. The changes of key re-arrangement for a Random layout would look like:- Remove suggested Queens Control Group (CG 5) off of Tab.
- Re-locate Control Group 5 to the #5 key (same as T&P's layout).
- Base Camera on Tab.
- Hatches/CC's/Nexuses on Caps Lock. This keeps the smoothest key sequence for creating workers the same for each race.
- Smart Key remains on Space Bar. Zerg receives Smart Key bindings for every unit/structure just like Terran and Protoss!
All in all, the biggest change is how Zerg Injects would work. You can still hotkey all of your Queens and do all of the same Inject methods previously available like "The Backspace" method, or "The Mouseless" method. The keys would no longer be set up in close proximity in the case of using a method that uses a Queens CG though. However, you could achieve/regain close proximity if you did something like swap out Tilde's binding with a Queen CG (which could actually be quite fast and flow well). "Camera Injects" stay the exact same so that's good, and box-selecting Queens and Injecting is good too so there is still freedom of choice there.
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Wow,
Thanks for a very thought through answer.
I do find the smart key's function is use full, thats what i want to try using it when playing zerg.
I had similar ideas than you, but yours makes sense regarding the tab and caps swap.
I am starting to experiment and will let you know of how it ends up working for me. My next post may be a while since i get distracted a lot these days playing Hearthstone and Diablo, but i want to make a point of doing SC more.
Thanks for your efforts on this. I for one appreciate it.
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Ok, So after a few days playing around with Fleet keys for random I think I have settled on the following. Decided to post it for in case some one else wants to play random and wants ideas.
I general i re-routed my ctrl, shift & alt to my additional mouse keys, making things a bit better for me as well.
Zerg:
+ Show Spoiler +The major changes I made was removing Contol Group 5 from Caps and making Caps the Base camera for all races.
The injecting method I use is to save every injecting queen on control group (2, 3 & 4). I double click the applicable Queen and my inject larva is on smartkey (Spacebar). The reason I don't like the other methods is because I inevitably get wandering queens during a heating battle in game, and that make me insanely frustrated once it happens. This obviously is just my preference.
My queens for creep spread is all on control group 7 (Q).
ALL my queens are also saved on Control group 5. This helps when you need to defend a strong in coming attack.
This does leave me with only 4 other control groups (1, 8, 9 & 0) for my Army and Buildings, but I am happy with that.
I added smart keys on all my mostly used functions as zerg, like inject, spread creep (from existing creep tumors), building spines etc.
So far I love this setup for Zerg.
Terran / Protoss:
+ Show Spoiler +I hardly changed anything here, except for a few minor personal preferences, but nothing worth mentioning.
Thanks again for the initiative of Fleet keys, I love it.
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@ZedraC
Thanks for giving it a spin. I Just read over your reply, and it sounds like you're enjoying your version of a would-be Random FK layout. Smart Keys for Zerg feels nice, and I think there may be a solid starting point for an actual Random layout on the horizon.
Normally I wouldn't recommend re-mapping your modifiers as there's no guarantee that you can replicate your custom re-mapped key settings in any tournament venue. Buuuut if you don't plan on ever doing that kind if thing then keep on chugging.
I have a few questions about your changes here:- 1. How does the Caps Lock for Hatches/CC/Nexus feel opposed to it on Tab? You decided to just keep it on Tab and use Caps Lock for Base Cam so I was curious.
- 2. What other abilities/spells/commands did you bind to your Smart Key for Zerg? My goal was to fill Space Bar with accurate guesses of the most intuitive abilities for Smart Keys in the T and P layout, what does your take on Zerg look like?
- 3. If you were to use another Inject method using this Random layout (aside from the one you mentioned), what would be the most comfortable configuration for you?
If you, ZedraC, or anybody else has ideas for how a Random FK Alloy layout would look like then by all means post them here.
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. 1. How does the Caps Lock for Hatches/CC/Nexus feel opposed to it on Tab? You decided to just keep it on Tab and use Caps Lock for Base Cam so I was curious.
To me it made more sense to keep all the hatches/CC/Nexus on tab (Control group 6), since early and mid game you use Tab then Q (right next to each other) a lot to build drones/SCV/Probes. Obviously changing this is not a big deal, so either way is perfectly viable IMO.
2. What other abilities/spells/commands did you bind to your Smart Key for Zerg? My goal was to fill Space Bar with accurate guesses of the most intuitive abilities for Smart Keys in the T and P layout, what does your take on Zerg look like?
At the moment I have the following on the smartkey for Zerg:
Drones - Build Basic, Build Spine, Build infestation pit
Hatches - Mutate to Lair / Hive (I am seriously considering changing this to build queen, since you do that more often.
Ovies - Generate creep
Overseer - Spawn Changeling
Queen - Spawn larva, however S works better actually, so not sure whether ill use it on my queens
Infestor - Fungal growth (however i very rarely play with them)
Corruptor- Corruption (however i very rarely play with them)
Viper - Abduct (ditto)
3. If you were to use another Inject method using this Random layout (aside from the one you mentioned), what would be the most comfortable configuration for you?
Answering your question short and sweet: I will do the base camera inject box selecting my queens one by one.
Long version:
+ Show Spoiler +I actually considered all of them. I have experimented. I was thinking of then using control group 7 for all my injection queens, then to inject selecting CG7 (Alt+Q) and then shift hold + s then cycle through my bases with Caps. Wondering queens are still a risk then, thus i am not to keen on using it. When practicing (vs AI) i dont have issues, but in a "real" game i always mess things up (since one queen may die during a drop or something then everything goes haywire  .
Normally I wouldn't recommend re-mapping your modifiers as there's no guarantee that you can replicate your custom re-mapped key settings in any tournament venue. Buuuut if you don't plan on ever doing that kind if thing then keep on chugging.
I am 38, a very busy family/business man. If I have 3 hours a day to play, its a bonus!. My highest league to date is only gold, thus tournies will not happen for me, unless they have one in South Africa for the elderly..... ;D.
I play for fun, nothing more.
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So I downloaded the HotS multiplayer file, put it in the ~/Library/Application Support/Blizzard/Starcraft II/Accounts/(numbers)/hotkeys folder, but when I start SC 2, the hotkey settings aren't showing up in my options from the drop-down list. What am I doing wrong?
Thanks in advance.
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@Tritone & all other Mac users
I found this in the comments section of this thread from last year. Nerdballer Metak posted:
~/{username}/Library/Application Support/Blizzard/Starcraft II/Accounts/{bunch of numbers}/Hotkeys
... this might be what you're looking for. I'm going to add the Mac path in the OP now.
REMEMBER! Make sure you "Download" the hotkey files, do not "Save As", it will download a file that looks like a bomb went off in it.
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Coming back to the random key layout, I made some small changes again to by control groups for Zerg and my inject method and want to share an idea or two for your comments.
Previously I said:
The injecting method I use is to save every injecting queen on control group (2, 3 & 4). I double click the applicable Queen and my inject larva is on smartkey (Spacebar). The reason I don't like the other methods is because I inevitably get wandering queens during a heating battle in game, and that makes me insanely frustrated once it happens. This obviously is just my preference.
My queens for creep spread are all on control group 7 (Q).
ALL my queens are also saved on Control group 5. This helps when you need to defend a strong in coming attack.
This does leave me with only 4 other control groups (1, 8, 9 & 0) for my Army and Buildings, but I am happy with that.
I am no longer happy with that after playing a few games. Its clear that having so many Queens on hotkeys it limits you on your other control groups, for example when I played vs a T the other night and went Sling/Bling/Muta, and i wanted to put them in individual control groups it was awkward cause 1 would be the lings, 8 the blings and 9 the mutas, it was a pain in the ass to press alt+w or alt+e to recall the blings and mutas. It makes more sense to have my armies on control groups 1-3.
Injecting and spreading creep (it's a bit boring, but I decided to post it for those who are interested)
+ Show Spoiler +
Once again I am experimenting with having my inject queens on one control group and my creep queens on another. I am trying different control groups together with backspace inject method to see what the most comfortable. Since I currently have control groups 4, 6, 7, 8, 9 an 0 left at this stage it seems logical to me to make my creep queen(s) control group 7 (double tap Alt+Q then a right below it (or shift+a for multiple creep queens) to place the creep tumor(s).
Do you perhaps have other ideas you think would work better?
If I use the smart key to spread/place tumors, that could also work comfortably... going to practice that for a few games and see how it feels.
Now my injection queens are then on control 8, thus to inject I press alt+w and then caps & hold s, caps & hold s, caps & hold s, (for 3 injecting queens)
Do you perhaps have other ideas you think would work better?
Note: I cannot use the fastest option (shift+caps+s method) as my keyboard cannot do the repetitive key thing...)
I must now get used to this setup again, and hopefully this works out better in the long run.
Additional ideas I am currently contemplating:
Scouting:
+ Show Spoiler +
I never used to save scouting ovies or lings on a control group, but a GM zerg suggested I do, thus i am thinking of putting my first ovie in control group 4, and my scouting lings in 5. Any thoughts?
Using the smart key for attacking???
+ Show Spoiler +
I am considering this since attacking is probably the thing you do the most compared to anything else. The obvious problem here is that this will completely throw out the smart key setups for T & P... I thought of just mentioning this to maybe get feedback on your (anyone's) thoughts about this.
Once again, T & P setup remains basically exactly like you had it in the OP. The challenge is indeed to incorporate the fleet keys for Zerg in there...
It would be awesome if Blizz can make a short cut key for switching between Hotkeys in game. That way if you see you are Zerg, you press "short cut" and bam you go to a zerg setup... like you have in the OP.
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@ZedraC
Responding to your topics here--- I'll try to be thorough
Injecting
+ Show Spoiler +There are definitely easier ways to go about injecting. In the past I suggested (for the Random layout) having Tab as Base Camera, and ` as Injection Queens. For the sake of these examples, I'll go ahead and say the Spawn Larva ability will be mapped to the Smart Key. With the way this would be setup, you'd have a few options for injecting that are actually easier on you and your available hotkeys as opposed to saving each Queen on a separate CG and double-tapping each and injecting. - 1. Backspace Method, (Uses Shift, No Clicking Required) - `, Shift+S (Hold Shift until done), Tab+S, for each Hatchery.
- 2. Backspace Method (Shiftless, Clicking Required) - `, Tab+S(or Smart Key), Click, for each Hatchery.
- 3. Base Cam/Box Method (Shiftless, Boxing and Clicking Required - Tab, Box Queen, S(or Smart Key), Click, for each Hatchery.
- 4. Camera Location Method, AKA Layered Injects (Uses Shift, Must Set Up Cam Locations At Each Hatchery) - `, Shift+S (Hold Shift until done), Alt+A,S,D, clicking for each Hatchery.
- 5. Rapid Fire Inject - JaK explains it well in video format here. In our hypothetical Random layout discussed here, it would look like: `. Tab+S (Hold both). You can also set up the Smart Key to do this as well by editing the hotkey file, finding "TargetChoose=LeftMouseButton,S", and adding ",Space" to it. This will make all Smart Key commands Rapid Fire-ready though so beware.
The "Shift+S+Caps" method you mentioned doesn't require you to have full Nkey rollover, you only hold Shift and tap the two keys, no holding the two keys down, just tapping. I'm going under the assumption that you kept Caps as Base camera and didn't move it up to Tab? I explained these examples with Tab as Base Camera, just so you know.
I like 1 and 2 the best. While 5 is the "fastest" and essentially 2 only sped up, it is the most unwieldy imo unless you're really good at it and your keyboard supports it. It can be made a little easier by having the Base Camera and Inject keys next to each other so you can slam on both simultaneously. It's not guaranteed to work, but it's something.
At 3+ bases while using methods 1 and 2 I like to press W to issue Hold Position commands to the Queens CG. It keeps them from wandering, but still lets you attack things that wander within their range. The injection methods above all provide various levels of direct control, but really, W fixes the wandering issue and that's the big one. For method 2, if you are fast at it, you can also avoid wandering because of the Queen inject animation cancels out other non-shift-queued commands during the animation (Rapid Fire Injects work because of this). The methods that use shift are the ones most at risk of wandering, hence the W (hold) suggestion.
Creep Spreading
+ Show Spoiler +For Spreading Creep I generally just use my Middle Mouse Button which is bound to Drag Scroll to skim along tumor patches. Turning up the drag scroll setting in options to the maximum setting is pretty much mandatory for this. I like this a lot because of a few reasons. I also experimented with Drag Scroll bound alternatively to Alt as well, but it's kinda straaaannge...Anyways--list: - 1. Allows you to retain your mouse position without being forced to click around the minimap whenever you need to go somewhere. Accuracy is an essential skill obviously but it's nice to have other options like this.
- 2. Guiding the "Camera/Screen Box" while observing or glancing at the minimap. This plays a big role in spreading creep because you can and will see when the tumors are ready to propagate simply by looking at the purple spread on the map. When you become fast at this, you should be able to be right on top of where you want to be when you decide its time to go there. As mentioned in 1, your mouse position will also be retained during this, so that helps.
- 3. Save on Cameras and Control Groups, and cuts down on extra key combinations (huge benefit).
- 4. Eliminates Edge Scrolling and becomes as precise as you are. It's a pretty big deal, especially when moving your screen fair distances away or in spaces between bases. You can't have a set Camera Location everywhere right?
- 5. Here's the biggest point-- you can produce units from the Hatcheries while Drag Scrolling, making use of every possible second!
Creep spreading is such a preference thing, and this is merely the way I like it and why. If you can make it work your way and you're happy with it, aim for the stars.
Scouting
+ Show Spoiler +It's always good if you can utilize more CG's effectively, and scouting CG's are never a bad thing to have. If you are planning on using 4 and 5, I would recommend actually taking the Alt+R CG (10), and moving it to the #5 key, so you can easily tap 4, (whatever command), 5 (whatever command) quickly. Ctrl+5 can be a bit of a stretch, but Shift 5 isn't really so that's not too bad.
Smart Key bound to Attack
+ Show Spoiler +I love the idea of experimentation with this, but unfortunately I would not recommend it for a few reasons. - You lose a ton of fast-access to important abilities for every unit in the game. That's a big sacrifice especially for a Random layout.
- Leaves you with a lot less room for customization.
- Having Attack on E is the sweet spot for issuing Attack commands with CG's 1 through 3, and is also decent for CG4. Try pressing 1e2e3e, and then try pressing 1Space2Space3Space. 1e2e3e is FAST!
- Space relies on you using your thumb. In any event that you're currently holding Alt near the time you want to A-move, you'll be forced to jump back on to Space and hammer down Attack commands which is a lot more inconvenient than simply jumping to 1e,2e,3e (or 4e) whenever you want.
If you, Zedra, or anyone else wants to provide input, feel free to share. I'm hoping to get some time off from work soon so I can release a finished version of these latest developments. New cheat sheets may also be on the horizon as the current ones require some updating.
A Random FK Alloy layout would really unify everything and simplify the whole experience. As there is no (known) hotkey for hotkey profile switching in-game, this is the next best thing. Actually, it's probably the best thing.
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Hi eneyeseekay,
Thanks once again for the detailed answers. I'm going to try your suggestions since it seems likeI have not yet fully grasped all of the concepts and options out there. I will definitely play around with that this weekend.
Your fleet layout is close to perfect for me, the one thing still bothering me is the inject method. The rest I am very happy with.
Regarding the creep spread. Once again, never thought of that. Going to try that to.
Smart key bound to attack: After posting I realized the same you mentioned. There will be just too many other important functions influenced, so attack is staying on e only for me.
Appreciate the detailed answers. It help a lot.
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EPT![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/seiDdf6.jpg)
