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Active: 730 users

How to Break the F2 Hotkey Addiction

Forum Index > StarCraft 2 Strategy
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1 2 Next All
Bombs
Profile Joined November 2011
Brazil20 Posts
Last Edited: 2021-03-04 15:08:16
March 04 2021 15:05 GMT
#1

[image loading]
youtu.be
"If we don't end wars, wars will end us" - H.G. Wells
WombaT
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
Northern Ireland25033 Posts
March 09 2021 00:36 GMT
#2
First time seeing your content man but really dug it. Nothing I didn’t personally know outside of the shift-rally which makes sense but wasn’t something my brain ever put together.

Plus finally someone other than my scrub self uses space for a rally camera!
'You'll always be the cuddly marsupial of my heart, despite the inherent flaws of your ancestry' - Squat
Vision_
Profile Joined September 2018
861 Posts
March 09 2021 15:41 GMT
#3
Cuts one or two fingers of your hand
kogeT
Profile Joined September 2013
Poland2037 Posts
March 11 2021 11:38 GMT
#4
A very enjoyable and guaranteed to succeed method: play starcraft brood war for a month.
https://www.twitch.tv/kogetbw
Chemist391
Profile Joined October 2010
United States366 Posts
March 12 2021 00:23 GMT
#5
Haven't watched the video yet; looks fairly in-depth.

Can't you just un-bind the all-army hotkey? That's what I do.. If I really, really want to use it, I can click the icon.
WombaT
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
Northern Ireland25033 Posts
March 12 2021 00:51 GMT
#6
On March 12 2021 09:23 Chemist391 wrote:
Haven't watched the video yet; looks fairly in-depth.

Can't you just un-bind the all-army hotkey? That's what I do.. If I really, really want to use it, I can click the icon.

It’s more about better alternatives to F2ing, how to group and how to get into the routine of using them over it.

I do find it still has its uses, be it a panicked pull of your whole army for a (probably unsuccessful in my case) case defence, or to cycle through all your units to find that observer you’ve lost track of or something.
'You'll always be the cuddly marsupial of my heart, despite the inherent flaws of your ancestry' - Squat
Spirral
Profile Joined February 2021
62 Posts
Last Edited: 2021-03-12 12:57:55
March 12 2021 12:57 GMT
#7
On March 12 2021 09:23 Chemist391 wrote:
Haven't watched the video yet; looks fairly in-depth.

Can't you just un-bind the all-army hotkey? That's what I do.. If I really, really want to use it, I can click the icon.


The problem with unbinding it is that the button will still be available over the minimap.
So after unbinding the hotkey a few months ago I have now developed an even worse habit of clicking the button.
I wish there was a way to remove it from the UI for addicts like me.
Guidji
Profile Joined March 2011
France20 Posts
March 12 2021 15:34 GMT
#8
On March 12 2021 21:57 Spirral wrote:
Show nested quote +
On March 12 2021 09:23 Chemist391 wrote:
Haven't watched the video yet; looks fairly in-depth.

Can't you just un-bind the all-army hotkey? That's what I do.. If I really, really want to use it, I can click the icon.


The problem with unbinding it is that the button will still be available over the minimap.
So after unbinding the hotkey a few months ago I have now developed an even worse habit of clicking the button.
I wish there was a way to remove it from the UI for addicts like me.


I totally do the same thing, there should be an alternate HUD without the button !
BadBorz
Profile Joined June 2012
Canada61 Posts
March 14 2021 00:51 GMT
#9
Unbind it , thats just the best solution
Agh
Profile Blog Joined July 2010
United States929 Posts
March 24 2021 11:33 GMT
#10
Just move it to a very obscure key that you will never hit. Or leave it unbound, you'll still be able to 'click the button (assuming that works) if you need it for some obscure/emergency situation.
I may appear to be an emotionless sarcastic pos, but just like an onion when you pull off more and more layers you find the exact same thing everytime and you start crying
WombaT
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
Northern Ireland25033 Posts
March 24 2021 11:41 GMT
#11
It’s still a useful hotkey to have bound situationally, even top players

Be it sniffing blood on offence and taking all your spread out forced forwards for the kill, or in a desperate scrambled defence F2 is the quickest and most efficient way to do that.

It’s like alcohol really, it’s only a problem if you’re using it all of the time and for folks in such a scenario you’ve gotta show life can be better at times without it, which I think the video does well in terms of better alternatives
'You'll always be the cuddly marsupial of my heart, despite the inherent flaws of your ancestry' - Squat
IcemanAsi
Profile Joined March 2011
Israel681 Posts
Last Edited: 2021-03-25 11:03:31
March 25 2021 11:02 GMT
#12
It took me a loooong time to break it for me, but this is how I beat it:

We are addicted to F2 for a simple reason, we are lazy, and this is easy. It takes more mental and physical effort to consistently group manage all your units. F2 is easier and feels more cost effective then manually grouping your units (it isn't)

The Soultion - Make it feel obviously less effective and requiring MORE mental and phyiscal effort than grouping.

The method - Set up a small number of patrolling units.

Obviously this is more fitting for zerg players (which I am) but I can see this working for Terran as well. As you set up your build, place a few units (lings for zerg, marines for terran) on patrol routes - two outside your base on and two on the opponent farther bases.

This is both a great scouting assist, which will help you catch the occasional weird build/all-in, but more importantly if you ever use F2 you will revoke the patrol commands and will have to pick four distinct units, give them move commands and patrol commands.

Now, F2 has a clear, immediate, expensive cost. You can still use it but you are constantly aware of the price. And using it feels like shit.
riotjune
Profile Blog Joined January 2008
United States3392 Posts
Last Edited: 2021-03-25 23:34:46
March 25 2021 23:29 GMT
#13
I like f2 (more specifically the all-army hotkey since I have it rebound) because you don't need to spend apm to reposition your screen to group your newly rallied units, just grab 'em and go! No need to keep track of ever-changing rally points and forgetting units either, which are just another apm/attention sink for me. You can also focus on a micro intensive battle on your main screen while you're at it, because looking away from that to manage your incoming units is one of the worst things you can do. Not even during an active battle, ever look away from your main army for one second and come back to find that it's all gone because a lucky opponent caught you not paying attention at that exact moment? f2 would lower those instances and make you have to gamble less if you're done with everything else at base.

If it didn't also grab all observers and overseers, f2 would be even better! I hope they let us customize which units to grab using the all-army function in the future. Do it blizzard, make it so that even grandma can play this game (actual quote)
WombaT
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
Northern Ireland25033 Posts
March 25 2021 23:40 GMT
#14
On March 26 2021 08:29 riotjune wrote:
I like f2 (more specifically the all-army hotkey since I have it rebound) because you don't need to spend apm to reposition your screen to group your newly rallied units, just grab 'em and go! No need to keep track of ever-changing rally points and forgetting units either, which are just another apm/attention sink for me. You can also focus on a micro intensive battle on your main screen while you're at it, because looking away from that to manage your incoming units is one of the worst things you can do. Not even during an active battle, ever look away from your main army for one second and come back to find that it's all gone because a lucky opponent caught you not paying attention at that exact moment? f2 would lower those instances and make you have to gamble less if you're done with everything else at base.

If it didn't also grab all observers and overseers, f2 would be even better! I hope they let us customize which units to grab using the all-army function in the future

It has its place, grabbing your units that you’ve placed to deal with drops etc isn’t ideal, or your singular scouting marines etc.

As a T I’d rally to the lowered depot on my depot wall (most pros do this) and have a camera hotkey to bounce and pull those guys. As Toss outside of when prisms come in I’ve got my camera set on the natural wall too, so by doing that for warpins you’re ingraining a habit that makes you faster to bounce to that and block a ling runby or whatever.

Doesn’t take much time plus you get the bonus of having units and a camera hotkey set already to block and deal with runbys.

I’m not snobby about F2ing by any means I still have it bound, past a point it has more disadvantages than advantages in pulling separated units out of position and then having to find and reset them (IMO anyway)
'You'll always be the cuddly marsupial of my heart, despite the inherent flaws of your ancestry' - Squat
crbox
Profile Joined August 2010
Canada1180 Posts
March 26 2021 12:12 GMT
#15
When Maru and Byun stop using it... I will. lol.

It's good in emergency situations. I agree that lower level players shouldn't develop bad habits, but do not unbind it.
seopthi
Profile Blog Joined December 2014
391 Posts
March 28 2021 13:11 GMT
#16
It would be nice if the hotkey ignored units on Hold and/or Patrol
ProTech
Profile Joined November 2010
United States434 Posts
Last Edited: 2021-03-29 10:14:36
March 29 2021 10:13 GMT
#17
F2 Function needs to be used, it's efficient and effective. Where people go wrong is relying on the tool at the wrong times. I can't tell you how many times i've seen a streamer afk their units somewhere on the map and forget about them, when if they used the all army hotkey it could have saved them from the losing.

It's not a matter of breaking the habit, it's about remapping it to a key that is less frequently used and replace the standard hotkey with a camera location.

People who don't use this function are playing at a disadvantage, and if you spend any length of time watching pro gamers on their streams, most if not all are using the function.

I'd take people who say it's a " bad habit " with a grain of salt.
deacon.frost
Profile Joined February 2013
Czech Republic12129 Posts
March 31 2021 10:01 GMT
#18
On March 29 2021 19:13 ProTech wrote:
F2 Function needs to be used, it's efficient and effective. Where people go wrong is relying on the tool at the wrong times. I can't tell you how many times i've seen a streamer afk their units somewhere on the map and forget about them, when if they used the all army hotkey it could have saved them from the losing.

It's not a matter of breaking the habit, it's about remapping it to a key that is less frequently used and replace the standard hotkey with a camera location.

People who don't use this function are playing at a disadvantage, and if you spend any length of time watching pro gamers on their streams, most if not all are using the function.

I'd take people who say it's a " bad habit " with a grain of salt.

it's a great tool but a bad habit. If you remove the marine from the tower, if you move your prepared runby or prism, if you move your previous 2 medevacs through the zerg army - that's the bad habit. And more than 90 % of the gaming population doesn't have the mechanics to fix these. OTOH they can't see the minimap either so moving the scouting units(e.g.) isn't such a great deal
I imagine France should be able to take this unless Lilbow is busy practicing for Starcraft III. | KadaverBB is my fairy ban mother.
MadJack
Profile Blog Joined March 2010
Peru357 Posts
April 04 2021 18:51 GMT
#19
its funny that actually youtube recomeds watching next "4 reasons why you should use F2" bye heromarine.
이제동 화이팅! / http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26jjD3ro-Xk /
[UoN]Sentinel
Profile Blog Joined November 2009
United States11320 Posts
April 04 2021 21:29 GMT
#20
I feel like I don't use F2 enough. Ever since WoL I just got into the habit of adding most of my deathball to group 3 and keep obses/prisms/oracles/etc. on groups 1-2. Used to have HT's on a separate hotkey all of the time, but I've been getting lazy ever since they got the ability to attack.
Нас зовет дух отцов, память старых бойцов, дух Москвы и твердыня Полтавы
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