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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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Np guys . Yeah it's really good in zvz for sure, but even beyond that as I find splitting of groups to defend drops or do runbys way easier now!
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That shit is seriously good to know. I can't count the times I've just ignored a drop because I didn't have the APM to split off a new control group.
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i didnt know these and i find it quite really usefull
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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.
Is there any reason not to replace Ctrl+X by Alt+X now?
I mean you could just rebind Ctrl+X to do what Alt+X is currently doing to keep ALT for health bars right?
When i create a control group with Ctrl+X i usually don't want anything in there to be in any other group anyway
I'm probably forgetting something very obvious as i haven't played this game seriously since the end of WoL...
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On November 23 2015 01:51 ArtyK wrote: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. Is there any reason not to replace Ctrl+X by Alt+X now? I mean you could just rebind Ctrl+X to do what Alt+X is currently doing to keep ALT for health bars right? When i create a control group with Ctrl+X i usually don't want anything in there to be in any other group anyway I'm probably forgetting something very obvious as i haven't played this game seriously since the end of WoL...
I think there are a few situations where you want some units in 2 control groups. For example when you want to a-move your whole army, but you want one unit type like colossi on an extra group to micro them back easily, or focus something specific with them.
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On November 23 2015 04:07 Musicus wrote:Show nested quote +On November 23 2015 01:51 ArtyK wrote:On November 20 2015 04:43 avilo wrote:
But i use the alt key to enable my health bars temporarily. This is heresy. Is there any reason not to replace Ctrl+X by Alt+X now? I mean you could just rebind Ctrl+X to do what Alt+X is currently doing to keep ALT for health bars right? When i create a control group with Ctrl+X i usually don't want anything in there to be in any other group anyway I'm probably forgetting something very obvious as i haven't played this game seriously since the end of WoL... I think there are a few situations where you want some units in 2 control groups. For example when you want to a-move your whole army, but you want one unit type like colossi on an extra group to micro them back easily, or focus something specific with them.
You can still do that with the colossi in only one group
1 for army without colossi
2 for the colossi
and f2 (i use tilde (² on french keyboard) next to 1) for the whole army
I just switched the hotkeys between Ctrl+X and ALT+X to see what happens, i'll probably find out if it was a bad idea sooner or later :p
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Makes me wonder if I'm still playing inefficiently because I'm too lazy to learn the better esoteric methods out there. This would be a great way to instantly split off a control group from the main army for drops, defense, or base sniping.
While we're here, is there any way to deselect a group of same units eg. remove observers/overseers from F2 all at once? (I tab to observers and shift click them out 1 by 1 lol).
Also, any way to get production buildings rallying to an entire control group (since they always stick and move together anyway) instead of just one unit in that control group? Hate it when said unit dies and leaves my reinforcements dicking around somewhere on the map.
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Ctrl+Shift click on them would remove all of them instead of having to click one by one but that's still pretty annoying to do :p
Or you could Ctrl+click to select them all then use the brand new alt+X to remove them AND create a control group for the observers at the same time BOOM
As for the rallying i don't think you can
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Thanks, think I'll use the first method you listed even though I hate pressing both Ctrl+Shift with my pinky. As for the second method, that would require more clicks and use up a control group (most likely #2), and I don't think I want to group all my observers spread around the map into the same group haha
Even with F2, I still have to tab (the number of times always changes!) to the observer/overseer group when I have more than 3 rows/24 units in the wireframe selection box. Guess there's no going around that one.
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Too bad they count overseers/observers as part of the army, would be much easier if it wasn't and we'd just add 1 observer to the group 1
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On November 23 2015 04:20 ArtyK wrote:Show nested quote +On November 23 2015 04:07 Musicus wrote:On November 23 2015 01:51 ArtyK wrote:On November 20 2015 04:43 avilo wrote:
But i use the alt key to enable my health bars temporarily. This is heresy. Is there any reason not to replace Ctrl+X by Alt+X now? I mean you could just rebind Ctrl+X to do what Alt+X is currently doing to keep ALT for health bars right? When i create a control group with Ctrl+X i usually don't want anything in there to be in any other group anyway I'm probably forgetting something very obvious as i haven't played this game seriously since the end of WoL... I think there are a few situations where you want some units in 2 control groups. For example when you want to a-move your whole army, but you want one unit type like colossi on an extra group to micro them back easily, or focus something specific with them. You can still do that with the colossi in only one group 1 for army without colossi 2 for the colossi and f2 (i use tilde (² on french keyboard) next to 1) for the whole army I just switched the hotkeys between Ctrl+X and ALT+X to see what happens, i'll probably find out if it was a bad idea sooner or later :p
Ah yes, the f2 key, I completely forgot lol. But I don't use that as a zerg player and even for Protoss it can be bad since it pulls all your observers.
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On November 23 2015 04:58 ArtyK wrote:
Too bad they count overseers/observers as part of the army, would be much easier if it wasn't and we'd just add 1 observer to the group 1
This would be a good suggestion for Blizzard. Ravens I would understand, but observers and overseers don't even have combat spells. Although there are times when I panick F2 and move all my detectors to one spot because dts are raping my base...
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On November 23 2015 04:59 Musicus wrote:Show nested quote +On November 23 2015 04:20 ArtyK wrote:On November 23 2015 04:07 Musicus wrote:On November 23 2015 01:51 ArtyK wrote:On November 20 2015 04:43 avilo wrote:
But i use the alt key to enable my health bars temporarily. This is heresy. Is there any reason not to replace Ctrl+X by Alt+X now? I mean you could just rebind Ctrl+X to do what Alt+X is currently doing to keep ALT for health bars right? When i create a control group with Ctrl+X i usually don't want anything in there to be in any other group anyway I'm probably forgetting something very obvious as i haven't played this game seriously since the end of WoL... I think there are a few situations where you want some units in 2 control groups. For example when you want to a-move your whole army, but you want one unit type like colossi on an extra group to micro them back easily, or focus something specific with them. You can still do that with the colossi in only one group 1 for army without colossi 2 for the colossi and f2 (i use tilde (² on french keyboard) next to 1) for the whole army I just switched the hotkeys between Ctrl+X and ALT+X to see what happens, i'll probably find out if it was a bad idea sooner or later :p Ah yes, the f2 key, I completely forgot lol. But I don't use that as a zerg player and even for Protoss it can be bad since it pulls all your observers.
Yeah i just realised that since riotjune mentionned it, like i said i didn't play this game much since the end of WoL x)
Anyway i'm still gonna try and play only with the alt function (binds switched with the ctrl ones) for a while because alt+X is just ankward to use for me
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Nice! I'm always accidentally adding warpgates to my main army control group. This should help.
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Thank you for the tip ! it's going to be really usefull !
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On November 23 2015 04:42 riotjune wrote:
Also, any way to get production buildings rallying to an entire control group (since they always stick and move together anyway) instead of just one unit in that control group? Hate it when said unit dies and leaves my reinforcements dicking around somewhere on the map.
Hold Shift + Right Click multiple units in your control group for rally. I think game allows you to rally up to 4 units. If the first one dies units rally to the second and so on.
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On November 23 2015 23:51 Silahsor wrote:Show nested quote +On November 23 2015 04:42 riotjune wrote:
Also, any way to get production buildings rallying to an entire control group (since they always stick and move together anyway) instead of just one unit in that control group? Hate it when said unit dies and leaves my reinforcements dicking around somewhere on the map. Hold Shift + Right Click multiple units in your control group for rally. I think game allows you to rally up to 4 units. If the first one dies units rally to the second and so on.
Wow I didn't know that either lol, going to try this out. Next thing for me is trying to figure out what's the best way to make multiple buildings with multiple workers selected while keeping the rest of the mining intact, I bet the Shift key comes into play again (I should really familiarize myself with Shift functions better  )
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Wait sorry I'm still confused, what did alt key do in hots? And what does it do now?
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On November 24 2015 10:51 EngrishTeacher wrote:
Wait sorry I'm still confused, what did alt key do in hots? And what does it do now?
In HotS it would toggle health bars I believe, but not many used it since you can just have your healthbars set to "always on".
Now alt+numberX removes units from a control group and puts them in control group numberX. Shift+alt+numberX removes units from a control group and adds them to the already existing control group numberX.
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Ohyes completely forgot about this function. Would you ever consider switching around the keys and use Alt for you standard way of control grouping? I mean it's not often that you want a unit in 2 seperate control groups. Sometimes you do, but definitely not most of the time.
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On November 24 2015 21:20 ejozl wrote:
Ohyes completely forgot about this function. Would you ever consider switching around the keys and use Alt for you standard way of control grouping? I mean it's not often that you want a unit in 2 seperate control groups. Sometimes you do, but definitely not most of the time.
I'm not sure, but ArtyK also brought it up and I think it's worth a try. Especially if you switch it around since you will still be able the use the normal control group function if you ever need units in 2 control groups. I already got used to the Alt key as it is, but it sounds interesting . For now I can't really think of a disadvantage and might just try it myself.
Edit: Just switched them around and it feels pretty good, I think I'll play like this for a while and see how it goes.
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It may be interesting to note that this is not specifically related to LotV but to the current game client.
The "Alt" key also works as shown if you play a HotS game (or a WoL game, I guess).
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On November 23 2015 18:36 MrBarryObama wrote:
Nice! I'm always accidentally adding warpgates to my main army control group. This should help.
AAAYYYYEEEEEEEEEE
Thanks to both the OP and this comment :D
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Definitely want to make this part of my play. Don't currently use it, but I see the potential for sure.
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On November 25 2015 00:49 RHoudini wrote:
It may be interesting to note that this is not specifically related to LotV but to the current game client.
The "Alt" key also works as shown if you play a HotS game (or a WoL game, I guess).
They added the hotkey to the client with the 3.0 update.
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I've been asking for this change ever since Wings beta. I'm all for mechanics but there's no reason we should fight the interface.
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This is really useful for Warp Prisms, Disruptors, Tempests, Ghosts... basically anytime you need to move something independently from your main army.
I used to get so annoyed when I accidentally got my Warp Prism with my main army and then I'd send it to harass and it would just come back to me lol.
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On November 20 2015 00:47 Musicus wrote:
Comparison between the Shift click method and the Alt key function:
Alt key: Press 1 -> box 16 lings(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
I want to add that you do not have to press 1 to start. You can simply Box 16 Lings -> Alt+2 -> aclick/rightclick.
You may still hit 1 for two different reasons:
1) You're double tapping 1 to get your camera over to the army, so you can box select
2) You want to check at start to make sure the "bulk army" is part of 1. It's not part of the Alt process, but maybe its useful if you've rallied army to hotkeyed army and want to decide whether to first make everybody 1 before splitting some off to 2.
Note: Sometimes I have a camera hotkey on my units, and I could press F1 (saved camera spot 1) -> box -> alt-2 -> move.
So just remember, the game KNOWS what hotkey your boxed units are part of so you don't have to hit the hotkey first to get them out of any control groups.
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Dear Lord this is going to be handy. Always hated the old way of removing from hotkeys (especially as zerg). Also going to be useful for splitting units and might reduce the pain in my screwed up right arm.
Maybe I might not lose and actually enjoy ZvZ......
Nah
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On November 26 2015 07:46 Danglars wrote:Show nested quote +On November 20 2015 00:47 Musicus wrote:
Comparison between the Shift click method and the Alt key function:
Alt key: Press 1 -> box 16 lings(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
I want to add that you do not have to press 1 to start. You can simply Box 16 Lings -> Alt+2 -> aclick/rightclick. You may still hit 1 for two different reasons: 1) You're double tapping 1 to get your camera over to the army, so you can box select 2) You want to check at start to make sure the "bulk army" is part of 1. It's not part of the Alt process, but maybe its useful if you've rallied army to hotkeyed army and want to decide whether to first make everybody 1 before splitting some off to 2. Note: Sometimes I have a camera hotkey on my units, and I could press F1 (saved camera spot 1) -> box -> alt-2 -> move. So just remember, the game KNOWS what hotkey your boxed units are part of so you don't have to hit the hotkey first to get them out of any control groups.
Oh yeah, of course. No idea why I even included press 1 in there. Because of the shift-click method I think it just slipped in. Thanks for noting!
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its great. taking parts of your ling bane out of your main army for drop defense, moving lurkers to a new hotkey seperate from your main army.
ive rebound ctrl to fully use this instead.
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wow what a sick tip that will take me like 3 years to remember, love it :D
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This is one of the best additions made to the game. I've already switched my basic setup so that the ctrl and shift control groups are the alt versions. Alt is add and alt+shift is create. Already noticed a difference in my control
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EPT
