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So I origninally wrote this down in TangSC's 14/14 guide http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/sc2-strategy/498682-a-basic-zerg-build-for-lotv.
But after realising that there are still people not aware of this function and seeing even Stephano split off Zerglings from his main army in the old way, I decided this should get it's own thread to help spread the word.
The Alt key function, which was originally added for the Archon mode, is just too good to be ignored.
How to use it:
Let's say you have 30 lings in your group 1 and are currently pressuring the natural of your opponent. If you want to send some lings into the oppontent's main to devide his attention, deselecting lings in the old way takes a long time and your deselected lings won't be in a control group. Now you can just box 10 lings and press Alt+2 and send them to the main. Those 10 lings will be removed from group 1 and will be in group 2 now.
Now you have 2 control groups and can easily attack at two locations and switch between them since both are hotkeyed.
You can also use shift+alt+number to remove units from a control group and add them to another already existing one.
I think using the alt key correctly will provide you a huge advantage over players that are not using it and will become a core mechanic for any zerg player, but most likely for every race.
Splitting of units from your main army to harass outside bases or do runbys, at any point in the game, has never been so simple. Gone are the days of harassing units running back because they are still hotkeyed with your main army. You want your casters in a seperate group? Control click them and press alt+number, no need to remake group 1!
I'm having so much fun with it  . Test it out if you haven't already!
Comparison between the Shift click method and the Alt key function:
Splitting of 16 lings from your main army (group 1) and hotkeying them in group 2.
Shift-click: Press 1 -> shift click the ling portraits 16(!!!) times to remove them -> press control+1 to reset your main group -> wait for your lings to split off from your army and arrive at the target location -> box them -> press control+2 to set the new group
Alt key: Box 16 lings from group 1(might not be as precise, but a group you feel is big enough will do) -> press Alt+2 -> sent them to the target location, done
Note: The shift-click method is still excellent when you want to split off units, but not hotkey them. For example when you are spreading lings across the map to scouting positions.
So what are your thoughts? Are you already using the Alt key function? How did it affect your play?
Personally I could no longer play the game without it I think, or at least I would feel heavily handicapped. It feels like I'm able to do a lot more/better runbys and my harassment has gone through the roof. Defending drops, without pulling your whole army, has become so much easier. I can not emphasize enough how good this feature is and I think it fits perfectly with the faster pace of LotV.
Edit: If you are already using the Alt key for something else you can rebind it!
Go to Hotkeys/Global/Control Groups. There you will see "create control group X and take aways units" as well as "add to control group X and take aways units".
Update from JaKaTaK on this :
https://www.reddit.com/r/starcraft/comments/3u7bmn/til_you_can_use_the_alt_key_to_quickly_create_a/cxcmnoh
You cannot bind this function to anything you want (like caps lock) as described in Musicus' post. It must be bound to a modifer (ctrl, alt, shift) or a combination of modifiers (like ctrl+shift). In Starcraft modifiers are the only keys allowed to create key combinations. If you wanted to bind this function to caps lock, it would only work for 1 of your 10 control groups. You would then have to find 9 more keys and memorize how they connect to each control group.
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I honestly didn't know the alt grouping was also added to 1v1. For whatever reason I thought it was Archon only.
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On November 20 2015 01:28 Tenks wrote:
I honestly didn't know the alt grouping was also added to 1v1. For whatever reason I thought it was Archon only.
That's probably what a lot of people think. Well now writing this was already worth it!
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This is awesome. Thanks for the heads up!
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Honestly did not know this while at the same time I was wishing Blizzard implemented something like this. Glad they did.
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This is fantastic! I did not know about this functionality. We play mostly Archon Mode--and I've a bunch of ideas!--but I can instantly see the usefulness here.
The OP could use some graphics, or maybe a quick gif showing how it works. With a little tweaking, and some more examples, I think you could well be on your way to a solid, useful [G] thread!
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But i use the alt key to enable my health bars temporarily. This is heresy.
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On November 20 2015 04:43 avilo wrote:
But i use the alt key to enable my health bars temporarily. This is heresy.
Hahaha, omg I didn't even think about that. That is indeed a small problem for you. Time to get used to healthbars being always on?
Also thanks for the kind words guys, I'm glad I could help. I sadly have no idea how to make a video/gif (I'm sure it's not that hard, but I don't really want to start downloading programs etc.), but I think the thread does it's job and is easy enough to understand.
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Alt+2 completely makes a new group, right? Like if #2 was bound it doesn't add to 2? Would that be shift+alt+2 to add units from group 1 group 2?
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Its problem for me, as I use ALT to create control group, and CTRL to add to control group. And my shift is used for other control groups so they need to make Caps Lock to work like those 3...
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On November 20 2015 05:15 Tenks wrote:
Alt+2 completely makes a new group, right? Like if #2 was bound it doesn't add to 2? Would that be shift+alt+2 to add units from group 1 group 2?
Exactly, shift+alt+2 works then.
On November 20 2015 00:47 Musicus wrote:
You can also use shift+alt+number to remove units from a control group and add them to another already existing one.
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On November 20 2015 05:16 Bastinian wrote:
Its problem for me, as I use ALT to create control group, and CTRL to add to control group. And my shift is used for other control groups so they need to make Caps Lock to work like those 3...
On November 20 2015 04:43 avilo wrote:
But i use the alt key to enable my health bars temporarily. This is heresy.
You can rebind the key!
Go to Hotkeys/Global/Control Groups, there you will see "create control group X and take aways units" as well as "add to control group X and take aways units". You can use caps lock if you want!
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The new alt function has helped my 1v1 play TREMENDOUSLY!
I find it so much easier to get my units properly hotkey'd because I can simply drag click over them/cntrl click and alt function them into a new group. I can't tell you how many times i messed up late game TvP engagements fumbling around my hotkey's with shift, cntrl+shift, etc.
I don't want to overstate how much the change has affected my play, but I can tell you that I find managing my army a lot easier and more fun now.
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I had no idea this existed, thank you for this post.
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Great to know, thanks for posting.
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On November 20 2015 09:16 GGzerG wrote:
Great to know, thanks for posting.
On November 20 2015 08:11 KingAlphard wrote:
I had no idea this existed, thank you for this post.
You are very welcome guys!
On November 20 2015 06:11 Ctone23 wrote:
The new alt function has helped my 1v1 play TREMENDOUSLY!
I find it so much easier to get my units properly hotkey'd because I can simply drag click over them/cntrl click and alt function them into a new group. I can't tell you how many times i messed up late game TvP engagements fumbling around my hotkey's with shift, cntrl+shift, etc.
I don't want to overstate how much the change has affected my play, but I can tell you that I find managing my army a lot easier and more fun now.
Yeah that's just how I feel .
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WOW
This is ridiculously OP, thank you for posting this.
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Oh, the mechanical struggle to adapt to alt+keying T_T
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On November 20 2015 06:03 Musicus wrote:Show nested quote +On November 20 2015 05:16 Bastinian wrote:
Its problem for me, as I use ALT to create control group, and CTRL to add to control group. And my shift is used for other control groups so they need to make Caps Lock to work like those 3... Show nested quote +On November 20 2015 04:43 avilo wrote:
But i use the alt key to enable my health bars temporarily. This is heresy. You can rebind the key! Go to Hotkeys/Golbal/Control Groups, there you will see "create control group X and take aways units" as well as "add to control group X and take aways units". You can use caps lock if you want!
I actually found perfect hotkeys for these, and tested it with ling/bane comp. in custom, and Im already getting used to these! This option will fit perfectly to ZvZ battles, to easily split lings from banes, and other matchups will find its use too!
I also thought this is only for Archon Mode, but now when I see, this option will be amazing! Thank you for sharing this bro!
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EPT
