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youtu.be
How to Break the F2 Hotkey Addiction
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Bombs
Brazil20 Posts
youtu.be | ||
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WombaT
Northern Ireland26225 Posts
Plus finally someone other than my scrub self uses space for a rally camera! | ||
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Vision_
870 Posts
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kogeT
Poland2041 Posts
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Chemist391
United States366 Posts
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. | ||
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WombaT
Northern Ireland26225 Posts
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. | ||
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Spirral
77 Posts
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. | ||
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Guidji
France20 Posts
On March 12 2021 21:57 Spirral wrote: 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 ! | ||
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BadBorz
Canada61 Posts
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Agh
United States1024 Posts
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WombaT
Northern Ireland26225 Posts
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 | ||
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IcemanAsi
Israel681 Posts
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. | ||
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riotjune
United States3394 Posts
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)  | ||
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WombaT
Northern Ireland26225 Posts
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) | ||
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crbox
Canada1180 Posts
It's good in emergency situations. I agree that lower level players shouldn't develop bad habits, but do not unbind it. | ||
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seopthi
393 Posts
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ProTech
United States439 Posts
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. | ||
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deacon.frost
Czech Republic12129 Posts
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  | ||
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MadJack
Peru357 Posts
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[UoN]Sentinel
United States11320 Posts
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deacon.frost
Czech Republic12129 Posts
On April 05 2021 06:29 [UoN]Sentinel wrote: 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. BTW I recommend remapping the 0 group to '~' (that's the key before 1, under the Escapte and above the Tab key). Adds an easily rechable group =) | ||
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[UoN]Sentinel
United States11320 Posts
On April 05 2021 06:48 deacon.frost wrote: BTW I recommend remapping the 0 group to '~' (that's the key before 1, under the Escapte and above the Tab key). Adds an easily rechable group =) Good call, never thought about doing this | ||
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MinixTheNerd
200 Posts
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meadbert
United States681 Posts
1) Select whole army 2) Assign whole army to hotkey 3 3) Select hotkey 2 4) Steal and assign to hotkey 2 The result is that this take everything that is not already in hotkey 2 and assigns it to hotkey 3. As long as I spam that every few seconds I can F2 around safely, but if I want to do a Zealot runby or leave a Stalker Patrolling a mineral line (or leave lings at Zel Naga if playing Zerg) then I just need to assign those units to hotkey 2 and they will never end up in hotkey 3. There is one draw back which is that you must always have SOMETHING in hotkey 2 because if you try to select hotkey 2 when it is empty you won't deselect what you had selected. I usually just add an Assimilator or something. | ||
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WombaT
Northern Ireland26225 Posts
On April 23 2021 06:13 meadbert wrote: I have my hotkeys set up such that if I hold down "Alt" with my thumb and I type QWER with my fingers then it: 1) Select whole army 2) Assign whole army to hotkey 3 3) Select hotkey 2 4) Steal and assign to hotkey 2 The result is that this take everything that is not already in hotkey 2 and assigns it to hotkey 3. As long as I spam that every few seconds I can F2 around safely, but if I want to do a Zealot runby or leave a Stalker Patrolling a mineral line (or leave lings at Zel Naga if playing Zerg) then I just need to assign those units to hotkey 2 and they will never end up in hotkey 3. There is one draw back which is that you must always have SOMETHING in hotkey 2 because if you try to select hotkey 2 when it is empty you won't deselect what you had selected. I usually just add an Assimilator or something. How did you come to adopt this, this feels very odd to me, in a good way. I’m curious as to the rest of your setup and I’m assuming you’ve got a rather non-standard one? Rather fascinated over here | ||
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DanceSC
United States751 Posts
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alpenrahm
Germany629 Posts
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Chemist391
United States366 Posts
On April 23 2021 06:35 WombaT wrote: How did you come to adopt this, this feels very odd to me, in a good way. I’m curious as to the rest of your setup and I’m assuming you’ve got a rather non-standard one? Rather fascinated over here Yeah, this is actually really cool. I might try to integrate it, albeit with different keys, into my setup.. | ||
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WombaT
Northern Ireland26225 Posts
On May 12 2021 04:57 Chemist391 wrote: Yeah, this is actually really cool. I might try to integrate it, albeit with different keys, into my setup.. I’d love a Pylon show with people with some of the most unique approaches to hotkeys and hear why they make the choices they do. Even if the player isn’t good the ideas might be, and it’s fascinating to see different approaches. Perhaps not either crazy or ‘good’ but I don’t camera hotkey my 4th and 5th bases. My theory is that you can rigidly predict your natural and 3rd location and keep that in your brain, 4th and 5th, not so much. So despite being less efficient minimap clicking is more practically speedy when you bypass the ‘is that my 4th or 5th base’. | ||
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Chemist391
United States366 Posts
On May 12 2021 08:43 WombaT wrote: I’d love a Pylon show with people with some of the most unique approaches to hotkeys and hear why they make the choices they do. Even if the player isn’t good the ideas might be, and it’s fascinating to see different approaches. One thing that I do is nexii on ~ and main army on 1. Build probe is e, and attack is r. So `e and 1r are the same finger placement (ring finger on ~ or 1 and index finger on e or r) with just slightly shifted hand position. Makes it easy to build probes while fighting. w is warpgate, q is robo, a is stargate. All of my spells/combat stuff is on t,f,g,v,b, which are all easy to reach with my index finger from r. 2,3,4,5 are various unit control groups. | ||
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