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Macroing with hotkeys

Forum Index > SC2 General
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1 2 Next All
Kaboo
Profile Blog Joined September 2009
Sweden125 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-03-09 11:31:43
March 09 2010 11:28 GMT
#1
How do you guys macro? This is how I do it:

Zerg:
Here I hotkey all my buildings(hatcheries, spawning pool and so on) to 1, my queens to 2 and then assign units to the rest of the hotkeys. This way I can macro using only my left hand. The sequence goes like 1,s,z,z,z, 2,r,r. This can be done without ever leaving the screen youre looking at. You can target the minimap with 'r' and that will order the closest queen to spawn larvae there. If I need an upgrade I'll just press 1 and then tab to the building with the upgrade then press the hotkey.

I'm pretty slow but imagine a pro player being able to macro everything without ever moving the left hand away from the left side of the keyboard and without ever having to leave the battle thats going on at the moment.

Terran:
Again all buildings to 1. All units to the rest of the keys. MULE deservers special notion here. If you slack off using this ability then fear not. If you havent hit max enbergy on one of your cc's then you really havent lost any direct income. You can just mass mule drop your newest expansion and be happy. 1 e e e e e e(target individual patches), and 'Kazooom!' ,massive mineral income. Mule is much more newbie friendly than chrono boost or mutate larvae, where you cant really skip a beat and keep up.

Protoss:
All buildings except warpgates to 1. All units to the rest of the keys(see the pattern?) For the chrono boost you dont have to look at the actual map. Just press 1 c and then click one of the buidnings in your hotkey group, then press c again until the energy runs out. All warpgates are automaticly bound to 'w' (why?).

Final thoughts:
Through all of this im a bit worried about the fact that you can do so much without ever having to go back and click stuff in your base. It seems that maybe removing the ability to macro by clicking the minimap and the controlgroups is a good idea.

TLDR:
Post your macroing ways. Also I'm worried its too easy to macro perfectly.
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication -Leonardo da Vinci
thOr6136
Profile Blog Joined July 2009
Slovenia1775 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-03-09 11:36:10
March 09 2010 11:34 GMT
#2
I play terran, i have cc on 6 and 7, factory on 5, barracks on 4, units are for 1, 2 and 3. But i reeeeally miss F keys

BLIZZARD GIVE US F KEYS BACK!

I still go back in base and click on each barrack and factory sometimes

Well, not really sometimes but almost all the time if i think about that now.
Dark.Carnival
Profile Blog Joined November 2006
United States5095 Posts
March 09 2010 11:37 GMT
#3
i play terran, and my hotkeys are as follows; 5-8 are one type of building + one type of add-on. for example, 5 will be two barracks + tech lab, 6 will be two barracks + reactor, 6 will be factory + tech lab, 7 will be starport + reactor, 8 will be starport + tech lab.

1-4 are always units, except in the cases where i bind air units to the same key (3) and my ground forces are easily seperated into 1-2. 0 is my main orbital, 9 is my expansion + whatever other orbitals i make.

i find it better than having them all bound to one key and having to hit tab, it lets me keep track mentally of what i'm making and which building it's being made from.
@QxGDarkCell ._.
ven
Profile Blog Joined December 2008
Germany332 Posts
March 09 2010 11:39 GMT
#4
Zerg - hatches to 3, hydras to 1.
Terran - units to 1, tanks and/or vikings to 2, ccs to 3, production to 4/5/6 order depending on unit mix with 4 having the main production. rax if bio, factories if mech, starports if air.
Protoss - units to 1, air to 2, nexi to 3, warp gates to 4, robos or stargates to 5.
You can reach the rainbow. I'll be there to help.
Hammy
Profile Joined January 2009
France828 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-03-09 11:43:07
March 09 2010 11:41 GMT
#5
On March 09 2010 20:37 xDark.Carnivalx wrote:
i play terran, and my hotkeys are as follows; 5-8 are one type of building + one type of add-on. for example, 5 will be two barracks + tech lab, 6 will be two barracks + reactor, 6 will be factory + tech lab, 7 will be starport + reactor, 8 will be starport + tech lab.

1-4 are always units, except in the cases where i bind air units to the same key (3) and my ground forces are easily seperated into 1-2. 0 is my main orbital, 9 is my expansion + whatever other orbitals i make.

i find it better than having them all bound to one key and having to hit tab, it lets me keep track mentally of what i'm making and which building it's being made from.

I tried that, but I didn't like seperating them because you'll switch around buildings with add-ons pretty frequently... I assign CCs to 4, Rax to 5, Fact to 6 and Starports to 7, and then I tab through them (tech-lab always comes before reactor).

With my main race (Zerg), I hotkey every base to 5/6/7/8... which allows me tu actually navigate through them. And on 4 I've got queens + all hatcheries. This allows me to produce easily when I want mass production, and use spawn larvae on the selection screen with shift.
1/2/3 is for army.
Slunk
Profile Blog Joined February 2010
Germany768 Posts
March 09 2010 11:47 GMT
#6
I think my system is pretty efficient.
Zerg:
1,2,3 - Units
4 - All hatcheries
5 - Hatch 1 and Queen 1
6 - Hatch 2 and Queen 2
7 - Hatch 3 and Queen 3

This way you can vomit larva really fast, just going 5x 6x 7x and clicking on the hatch symbol(so the mouse can remain on the same spot while injecting)
Building units is just 4 q and then whatever you like.

8-0 can be used for more Hatches and queens (which is insane since the first 3 pairs allready work like 7 hatches in SC1) or tech structures/whatever.
lol.Froste
Profile Joined January 2010
United States112 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-03-09 11:57:57
March 09 2010 11:51 GMT
#7
Terran!
i have thought this through and it seems to work pretty well so far.

base ground units on 1 (mostly marines, marauders)
support units or air on 2 (mostly hellions, tanks, banshees, vikings)
casters on 3 (mostly ravens, ghosts)

barracks on 4, factories on 5, starports on 6
main tech building to 7 (usually ebay)

ALL cc's on 9
orbital commands on 0
^ this allows me to macro by "9ss" <- press 9 with my index and s with my pinky
i can scan easily and if i want to mule i can double tap 9 to get to any cc, then hit 0 e and select a mineral patch

since 8 is the only key i dont use, i just hotkey it to whatever i want to check. for example if i am constructing a new cc i will hotkey that to constantly check the progress. i am researching a nuke i can hokey the ghost academy to 8

On March 09 2010 20:28 Kaboo wrote:
TLDR:
Post your macroing ways. Also I'm worried its too easy to macro perfectly.


this STILL baffles me, how can perfect macro be a bad thing.
Macro in BW was tedious, redundant, frustrating, boring, and mind numbing. I will admit sometimes it is strangely satisfying to flash back to base and macro up another round smiling red cheekily at your own godly skills of remembering to keep making stuff. but honestly, making a macro system easier and more noob friendly can only do raise the level of the game.

if anything improved macro will focus the game LESS ON MINDLESS UNIT PRODUCTION and more on actual strategy and quick thinking. SCII is going to be a game were the smart player is king, and the mindless mechanic player will simply rage quit and run back to starcraft BW.

thats just my opinion maybe im just a noob who is talking out of his ass ^^
Zapdos_Smithh
Profile Blog Joined October 2008
Canada2620 Posts
March 09 2010 11:56 GMT
#8
Temporarily freestyling it with BW hotkeys until they put the frigging f keys back in.

Seriously if they don't come back in I'm not even going to play the game anymore I need f keys.
lol.Froste
Profile Joined January 2010
United States112 Posts
March 09 2010 11:58 GMT
#9
On March 09 2010 20:56 Zapdos_Smithh wrote:
Temporarily freestyling it with BW hotkeys until they put the frigging f keys back in.

Seriously if they don't come back in I'm not even going to play the game anymore I need f keys.


you are foolish
Dav_
Profile Joined June 2009
Hungary236 Posts
March 09 2010 12:02 GMT
#10
0 - hatcheries(hungarian keyboard so 0 is on the left side:D)
1-2 - units
3 - all queens(i spawn larvae on the minimap)
4 - nydus
McCrank
Profile Joined March 2008
204 Posts
March 09 2010 12:08 GMT
#11
1-3 units, 4 raxes, 5 CCs

rest i click
jabberwokie
Profile Joined September 2009
Canada142 Posts
March 09 2010 12:18 GMT
#12
1-4 units 4 all hatcheries for larva growth and 5 for all hatcheries and queens for smartcasting fastest possible larva inject goes like 5 r r + two left clicks and away we go. 0 nydus. and amongst units 3 is usualy detector while I use 1 and 2 to create distinct groups for positioning like flanking, backstabs, wraps etc.
Kaboo
Profile Blog Joined September 2009
Sweden125 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-03-09 12:24:01
March 09 2010 12:19 GMT
#13
ALL cc's on 9
orbital commands on 0
^ this allows me to macro by "9ss" <- press 9 with my index and s with my pinky
i can scan easily and if i want to mule i can double tap 9 to get to any cc, then hit 0 e and select a mineral patch


I like this although im not sure I can do it myself. I can reach 7-9(streeeching) with my index finger and q,a,z with my pinky but I dont really have any dexterity doing it. I guess its something to practice?

Maybe you'll have to have big manly hands to be pro ?

this STILL baffles me, how can perfect macro be a bad thing.


Well if everyone gets to have perfect, and I mean perfect, macro then there is less room for improvement in other areas of the game. It would be good if it was easy to play but nigh impossible to play perfectly.
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication -Leonardo da Vinci
MorroW
Profile Joined August 2008
Sweden3522 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-03-09 12:23:58
March 09 2010 12:22 GMT
#14
its best to split ur tech labs from ur reactors

if u have 2 tech labs and 2 reactors selected (raxes) and click 6 marines, then it will make 3 rine in each tech lab and nothing in the reactors or vise versa. i usually hotkey tech labs on 4 and reactors on 5 :p

ccs on 0 and starport on 6

macro is so easy man, the only question is how to optimize ur builds, the actual clicking is cake which i think is pretty eh~ just feels kinda lame everyone can macro simply now, no need to mass practice every day like before when it comes to mechanics
Progamerpls no copy pasterino
Striverz-G
Profile Joined February 2010
United States63 Posts
March 09 2010 13:02 GMT
#15
On March 09 2010 21:22 MorroW wrote:
its best to split ur tech labs from ur reactors

if u have 2 tech labs and 2 reactors selected (raxes) and click 6 marines, then it will make 3 rine in each tech lab and nothing in the reactors or vise versa. i usually hotkey tech labs on 4 and reactors on 5 :p


or press TAB to cycle through your different type barracks under one hotkey
(ex: 5ddd, tab, aaa) to build 3 marauders and 3 marines
I get it in.
ICCup.Tesla
Profile Blog Joined July 2009
United States841 Posts
March 09 2010 13:13 GMT
#16
I'm a Zerg player, so my macro is odd...:

~~Macro~~
Ovi - 1
Main hatch 4 - s - d (till 10 drones) then v.
Then double click 4 select drone, and b -s (build pool)

after done, 6 lings (2)

as my units gain..I keep assigning 1-3 & 6-9 as units.
4 is for most of my hatcheries unless there is a special hatch I am working on and then its 5.

I guess I am very odd in the way I play :/...I almost never hot key queens unless its last minute and need to. Same with drones. So ya...>.>
@DjTesla ~ CEO of GoSc, GoLoL, GoD3 & GoSmite ~ @The_GoSc ~ @TheGoLoL ~ The greatest glory of man, is not in never falling, but in rising after each time he has fallen.
UnderWorld_Dream
Profile Joined September 2009
Canada219 Posts
March 09 2010 13:40 GMT
#17
any thoughts on why they removed f2 f3 f4 ??
protocol
Profile Joined February 2010
United States15 Posts
March 09 2010 13:40 GMT
#18
I suck at assigning hotkeys/control grps

The most i ever assign is orbital command 1
first attack force 2
after that is just mouse clicking the map and spamming a-d for MM >_>;;
ICCup.Tesla
Profile Blog Joined July 2009
United States841 Posts
March 09 2010 13:47 GMT
#19
On March 09 2010 22:40 MaDTeMpLaR wrote:
any thoughts on why they removed f2 f3 f4 ??


To many people doing things like maybe..Alt+f4 XD, that would be my guess
@DjTesla ~ CEO of GoSc, GoLoL, GoD3 & GoSmite ~ @The_GoSc ~ @TheGoLoL ~ The greatest glory of man, is not in never falling, but in rising after each time he has fallen.
ZenDeX
Profile Blog Joined May 2008
Philippines2916 Posts
March 09 2010 13:54 GMT
#20
On March 09 2010 22:47 ICCup.Tesla wrote:
Show nested quote +
On March 09 2010 22:40 MaDTeMpLaR wrote:
any thoughts on why they removed f2 f3 f4 ??


To many people doing things like maybe..Alt+f4 XD, that would be my guess

Can't the game just give you an option to disable Alt+F4 just like with Alt+Tab and Windows key?
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