I have seen many players since the beginning of Starcraft make videos on hotkeys and many of them are fantastic and very insightful. The thing that always kept be unsatisfied was that I felt like each video only had a piece of the whole picture when it comes to setting up hotkeys. So, it would take me about 10-15 videos before I could wrap my head around a wholesome amount of information to proceed with setting up hotkeys. Well I don't want gamers having to go through the same process as me so I've put all of the information in one place!
***Revision: For those of you who have seen the original video, below is a shorter revision video where I show my current setup as of August 2016 with some extremely helpful illustrations and tips!
Hotkeys Revisited (My Legacy of the Void Setup)
This Original Guide covers all of the following topics:
-The dangers of a sub-par hotkey setup. -The difference between Pro and Semi Pro Setups in game play. -The secret ingredient to optimal hotkey creation. -A Diagram of the most optimal hotkey setup. -A replay example of 0-10 hotkey usage simultaneously. -Adjusting to the learning curve and adapting your new setup.
I hope this Guide serves you all well.
The Most Comprehensive Guide to Protoss Micro, Macro, & Production Hotkeys in Starcraft 2
That's an interesting concept Swift. It definitely seems very convenient. I'd love to see it live if you have a video example. What would be interesting to see is if the concept of holding down a button on your mouse and moving your mouse during gameplay aren't too opposite of concepts to the point where when using the buttons or sliding your mouse doesn't throw the other mechanic off. Does that make sense?
***Revision: For those of you who have seen the original video, below is a shorter revision video where I show my current setup as of August 2016 with some extremely helpful illustrations and tips!
That's a fair point sabas123. You most absolutely could. I usually make it a point to place upgrade/techs close to Nexii and since I double forge its only 3 clicks per game to que full upgrades not including tech. It's not the most optimal so I would definitely consider your recommendation for something like my 9 or 0 Key. Thanks bud!
On August 06 2016 05:39 aScPraiise wrote: That's a fair point sabas123. You most absolutely could. I usually make it a point to place upgrade/techs close to Nexii and since I double forge its only 3 clicks per game to que full upgrades not including tech. It's not the most optimal so I would definitely consider your recommendation for something like my 9 or 0 Key. Thanks bud!
Its not 3 clicks only, its also a screen relocation that bugs me the most, especially in intense games.
Hey @aScPraiise, pretty good videos. You know, I was getting a hard time with LotV at its release so I stopped playing Sc2 since Nov 2015. Right now I'm getting back to it, Gold 3 at the moment and was using the Fleet Alloy layout but it doesn't fit me well.
I saw your videos and thought that your layout could be great to me, can you share your SC2HOTKEYS file? I was trying to make my own hotkeys file watching your videos but I'm so damn rusty and keep forgetting about some unit's abilities and I notice that while in a match, I'm so damn bad.
You asked about other hotkey setups? I use a setup which shares two of your core ideas - the top-left-ness and the easy second keypress after hitting a structure hotkey. I am only Plat1 so these are ideas only, but I was mostly Gold before changing my layout for LotV.
In my case I have the numerical control groups far left, i.e. 1, 2, tab, Q, W, A, S, \, Z , X (on UK keyboard). This is primarily for the ring finger.
The selecting keys (lavaa, advanced buildings) as E, D. The E key is my middle finger rest point when macro'ing.
The action keys (some rapid fire) form the remainder and overlap with E, D. I.e. 3, 4, 5, 6, E, R, T, D, F, G, C, V, B. This is for the index or middle depending.
The macro stuff is at the top 2 two rows, the army stuff at the bottom 2 rows. The attack button is the space bar, cancel is mouse thumb button. Pinky is used for shift, pinky laid flat for ctrl + shift. Tilda is the base camera.
I have prised out the caps lock (I do that in real life anyway). This allows the flat pinky, but also my pinky rests there so as to anchor. I've tried textured keys for anchoring, but that was a fail.
All of this elaborate rearrangement does is allow me to do fast macro triplets and fast repeated army doublets.
By triplet I mean bringing all three fingers down at once but with the ring finger slight higher and the index finger higher still. This gives three rapid key presses just by bringing by hand down in a certain shape. For example, when playing as Zerg, I have my hatcheries on W, E is select lavaa and R is make ling. WER (holding the R) insta-spams lings. E is also the make drone, so WE (hold) spams drones. 4 is overlord. To make 2 ovies (4) and 10 roaches (T): WE4, WE4, WET(hold). That's 3 hand movements. The extra key presses are possibly inefficient, although I don't think so, and it's a lot less thinking this way.
A Terran example (similar for Protoss). I have bases on W, raxes on 2, factory on 1 and starports on Q. Worker is again WEE. Marine is 23, marauder 24, tank13, mine 1e, medivac Q4, lib Q3, etc. Mules are WED.
Combat is similar. A is my main army, X the flyers, Z is tanks/lurkers. S, \, Z usually for defence. S becomes spell casters. e.g. fungal plus bile becomes AD, SD. Here the space bar attack starts to make sense. As I am constantly boxing and attacking, I don't want to displace my fingers too far. By using the thumb to hit the space bar, I have an nice error free attack move that doesn't cause me to lose hand anchoring. The feeling is one of a gentle ripple rather than the contortionist hand movements I was doing before.
As a plat player I am not about to recommend this setup, but I can say it's been a dramatic gain for me without being as radical a change as the Core. My play sounds less stoccato and more like trickling rain.
Is this better than Core? I used to play Master Protoss in WoL, haven't played since and am curious if I should use the Core layout which I've never used before -- or should I switch to yours? I'd like to pick one before I start, any suggestion is appreciated.
EPT
