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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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 ^^
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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.
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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
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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
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1-3 units, 4 raxes, 5 CCs
rest i click
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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.
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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.
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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
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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
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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...>.>
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any thoughts on why they removed f2 f3 f4 ??
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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 >_>;;
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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
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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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I have played extensively only terran and zerg so far, I also use custom hotkeys to macro, but here's how it looks :
In both races I use 1-3 to units
Terran
4 for barracks, 4&6 if I am massing M&M to get the reactored marines faster than by using TAB
5 for all CCs/OCs
6 for factories or Starports, depending on the units I use the most often during that game
7 for factories or Starports
Sometimes I will use 4&6 for facs/ports if I really don't need the rax
All main unit production is set on T-R-E, special units like Ravens, Ghosts and BCs use different hotkeys (by memory I think I put W for Ravens and G for ghosts)
Zerg
This is interesting imo and I developped this set of hotkeys over dozens of games :
4 is for all Hatcheries
5 is hotkey for larvae
6 is Hatchery(ies) + Queen(s)
basically, when I'm away ordering my units and I need production, say mutalisk (which I have "S" as hotkey, I think it's default) it looks like this : 4-5-s-s-s-s-s-...-left click for rally-6 (to select queens) x-click-x-click-... (x being the larvae spawn ability, and click on the hatchery icon)
so I can produce anything I need - and very quickly! - without ever having to look at my base as a zerg
of course I have custom hotkeys for buildings and units, and it's very much only personnal preference, but I rebinded the building hotkeys to be close to B and G (the basic and advanced structures interface access), the most common buildings look like this :
- B-V for pool (same for other race's rax)
- B-C for warren
- B-X for hatch (same for other race's main)
- B-G for extractor (same for other race's gas building)
- B-R/T for spines/spores (same for other race's bunker/turret/cannon)
- G-G for den
- G-F for infestor's nest
- G-S for spire
- G-R for nydus
and for units, these are my hotkeys :
- T = drones (same for other race's workers)
- B = overlords (same for other race's farms)
- R = roaches
- Z = zerglings
- A = mutas
- W = infestors
- C = corruptors
Hope this helps some people!
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4-5 ?
not smth like
4-s (all hatch -> select larvae)
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On March 09 2010 22:40 MaDTeMpLaR wrote:
any thoughts on why they removed f2 f3 f4 ??
They can't remove it, because SC2 is a new game. Either they won't add it, or haven't gotten to it yet.
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1 Main army
2 Flank/air (scouting probe/overlord early)
3 Casters
4 Hatchery + queen or CC/nexus
5 Hatchey + queen or rax/gateways (+nexus)
6 first tech building (+nexus)
7 2nd tech building (+nexus)
Be sure to hotkey queens and hatcheries together and well as nexus + other buildings so you can use inject larva or Chrono boost without looking back at base.
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On March 09 2010 22:02 Striverz-G wrote:Show nested quote +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
ye thats true, i just find that to be harder (and new)
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On March 09 2010 22:40 MaDTeMpLaR wrote:
any thoughts on why they removed f2 f3 f4 ??
It might be as simple as how they are used in the replay viewer. In the replay viewer F1-F* are to select the "POV" of each player.
As Terran I set my CC's all to 5, and my rax to 3, my secondary buildings to 4(factory and or starport), you will be amazed how fast you learn the tab system, and how quickly you will love it. You can be microing, move you guys back, hit 3 adjust the rally point, D, A,A,A,A, then grab your army (for me on 1 and 2 depending on the composition), and you are back in the fight with reinforcements on the way, sooooooo much better.
As Protoss with the warp gate mechanice, you already have warp gates on 'w', so I just use the 5 for Nexus's, and 3/4 for other production buildings. However somebody posted some good ideas about grouping ALL buildings to make chrono boosting easier, and you can just chrono boost your icons, which sounds very sexy but I've been playing to much Terran recently to try it out.
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Hotkeying your hatcheries to different hotkeys is going to be so much better, SLIGHTLY harder but better. You wont have to count out pressing z 18times for 18sets of zerglings and you will be able to choose what spawns where, and double pressing the hatch hotkey will take you to the hatch.
Seriously, do NOT hotkey your hatcheries to one hotkey; it is "easy" mode sure but it is also inefficient mode. At least dont recommend to other people to do it, it's just a sloppy horrible habit I would never recommend to get into.
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I wonder if the same people that are complaining that SC2 has made macro too easy are the same ones who are complaining at the lack of F keys.
SC1 = Never enough hotkeys; F keys extremely valuable as location markers.
SC2 = You'll never need to run out of hotkeys; but no easy way to jump to a location with the F keys. (But you can always hotkey a building in every base to do that.)
I realize that there were obvious advantages to having the F keys in SC1 eg. moving workers to another expansion, when under heavy harassment/attack, without deselecting them. That is a definite time saver. But, with infinite selection, you only need to drag a box round your workers once, whereas you would have had to do it a few times in SC1.
Also, I could be wrong, but workers don't even seem to behave differently when told to go to a gas geyser or a mineral patch. At least, not in the way they did in SC1, when they would glide through other units.
If this is true, then there's no reason why you can't just send your units to a location on the minimap, if you wanted to be 'lightning fast' in sending them away. Or just click on the minimap and send them to a mineral patch.
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On March 10 2010 03:06 bladebrood wrote:
Hotkeying your hatcheries to different hotkeys is going to be so much better, SLIGHTLY harder but better. You wont have to count out pressing z 18times for 18sets of zerglings and you will be able to choose what spawns where, and double pressing the hatch hotkey will take you to the hatch.
Seriously, do NOT hotkey your hatcheries to one hotkey; it is "easy" mode sure but it is also inefficient mode. At least dont recommend to other people to do it, it's just a sloppy horrible habit I would never recommend to get into.
Don't understand this...whether or not you put all hatches in same group or not, you'll still need to press z 18 times for 18 zerglings...
And how often do you actually want your hatches to rally to different locations?
Putting each hatch in its own hotkey does let you center on the hatch easily, but totally disregarding a hotkey for all your hatches makes macro needlessly complicated. Do both.
Here's what I do:
5: all hatches
6: 1st hatch + 1st queen
7: 2nd hatch + 2nd queen
8: 3rd hatch + 3rd queen
9: 4th hatch + 4th queen
10: 5th hatch + 5th queen
I've never been past 5 hatches, since 5 hatches + 5 queens = 12.5 hatches of production (insane)
this lets me macro easily & efficiently, while still letting me use queens without needing to move my screen back to my bases.
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Just to see if I got this right:
Lat's say I have 4 hatcheries with 4 queens, each one standing next to a hatch, and i put them all in one group. So if i select this group and just press X for larvae injection and click on every hatch, so each queen injects her own hatchery?
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I think F keys are meant to be used by custom made games (for heroes)
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this STILL baffles me, how can perfect macro be a bad thing.
Think about it like this, its like if they took football(american+soccer) and made all the players able to run the same speed and catch/kick/throw equally well. In theory this would be good for the game as it allows people to concentrate on the strategy and smart plays, but it would actually remove a huge element from the game AND the strategy. All good sports have a strategic component and a physical/mechanical component, this allows:
1. Much more capacity for skill and improvement
2. Actually INTRODUCES strategy in the game to compensate for imperfect mechanics, you can't macro or micro perfectly in BW so you have to smartly allocate your attention between all the things going on in the game, deciding what is important (game sense).
3. Adds the strategic element of attempting to take advantage of your opponents lack of perfect Macro/micro (multiple attacks, sneaking drops, getting them to waste time muta microing when you think you will come out economically ahead, distracting them with harass while you expand).
4. Allows gameplay style, you can customize how you play between concentrating more attention on overall strategy/micro/macro. Without mechanical requirements everyone plays the game very similarly, which isn't much fun.
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On March 10 2010 03:42 Slunk wrote:
Just to see if I got this right:
Lat's say I have 4 hatcheries with 4 queens, each one standing next to a hatch, and i put them all in one group. So if i select this group and just press X for larvae injection and click on every hatch, so each queen injects her own hatchery?
If I understand smart-casting correctly (& it works the same as it did in WC3), then if you have all queens + hatches in same group, and you try to spawn larvae at a hatch, it will use the nearest queen that also has enough energy.
So for example if you try to inject at your main hatch, and all of your queens don't have enough energy, but the queen all the way across the map DOES have enough energy, she will walk all the way across the map and try to spawn larvae at your main (this would be very BAD).
I haven't tested this myself though.
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Ground army - 1
Scout\Base Builder\Air Army - 2
Command Center, Nexus, Queens - 3
Barracks, Gateway, Ghost Academy, Hatcheries - 4
Robotics, Factory, Nydus Network - 5
Starport, Stargate - 6
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If I understand smart-casting correctly (& it works the same as it did in WC3), then if you have all queens + hatches in same group, and you try to spawn larvae at a hatch, it will use the nearest queen that also has enough energy.
So for example if you try to inject at your main hatch, and all of your queens don't have enough energy, but the queen all the way across the map DOES have enough energy, she will walk all the way across the map and try to spawn larvae at your main (this would be very BAD).
I haven't tested this myself though.
All true. The queen doesnt have to be in the same group though. You can target the minimap or the group selection and the closest queen(with energy) will cast.
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EPT
