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Starcraft 2 hotkeys setup and hand positioning

Forum Index > SC2 General
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lunar3force
Profile Joined January 2010
78 Posts
March 15 2010 14:27 GMT
#1
Hello everyone

I was thinking it would be nice to have tread where players could share their hotkeys and hand positions they figure out for each race thet gives them maximum comfort and efficiency in macroing. For most of new or inexperianced players in RTS ( like myself) most comfortable and easy way to is having having index finger on hotkeys and thumb hitting varius shortcuts. That is ok for lowest ranks but anything higher player will probably struggle as his overall play is too slow. For Protoss for example if you hotkey Nexus on 6, Gateway on 5. That way you can put index finger on 6, middle on 5, ring on E, pinkie on S, thumb on B. seems nice position for doing lots is action from only 1 hand position. I will probably start to practice this way. Lots of people are having different setups but also on other hand if many people are macroing on same way we could have "recomended" hotkey and hand positioning so that many new players can start practise right way insted wrong from get go.
frequency
Profile Blog Joined February 2010
Australia1901 Posts
March 15 2010 16:01 GMT
#2
I have mine pretty much the same as WC3 ;/

1/2/3 are units, usually separated into various groups for whatever reason
4 is barracks
5 is secondary building, starports/facs
6 main
7 expo (altar in wc3 )
890 usually nothing
www.twitter.com/marconofrio | marconofrio.tumblr.com
Sejong
Profile Joined March 2010
Korea (South)153 Posts
March 15 2010 16:09 GMT
#3
Right now I like:

1-3 units
4 all units
5 nexus
6 nexus
7 nexus

Am I the only one that likes each nexus separately? I am doing this so that I can chrono all the time. How else can it be done?
Holden Caulfield
Profile Joined March 2010
102 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-03-15 16:16:12
March 15 2010 16:15 GMT
#4
1- CC (and pissed with it)
2- melee units
3 - range units A
4 - range units B
5 barracks
6 factories
Jyvblamo
Profile Blog Joined June 2006
Canada13788 Posts
March 15 2010 16:18 GMT
#5
1-2 units
3 main hatchery + any subsequent hatcheries
4 main queen
5 natural hatchery
0 main hatchery

I haven't played enough games into the later stages to develop a hotkey layout for more units, buildings, queens, etc.
Hirmu
Profile Blog Joined August 2008
Finland850 Posts
March 15 2010 16:18 GMT
#6
1-3(4) units
4if not unit in this group its for robo
5nexus(robo if g4 has units)
6nexus
7nexus
8 all buildings that produce something with nexuses.
starcraft911
Profile Blog Joined July 2008
Korea (South)1263 Posts
March 15 2010 16:21 GMT
#7
early game
1 - units
2 - cc/nexus/hatch
3 - rax/gate/queen

late game
1-3 - units
4-6 - production buildings
7-0 - other shit like drops, obs, overseers etc.

I don't like to tab so i usually put all rax on 4 all fact on 5 all ports on 6 and what not.
Antimage
Profile Blog Joined March 2010
Canada1293 Posts
March 15 2010 16:22 GMT
#8
I've combined my sc/wc3 hotkeys, coincidentally...

5/6/7 all different production buildings, 8/9/0 for nexus, and 2/3/4 in unit groups to use to flank.

1 will be something special like a key observer or warp prism, but sometimes oddly enough i just won't use it.
Mr.Pyro
Profile Blog Joined July 2008
Denmark959 Posts
March 15 2010 16:28 GMT
#9
On March 16 2010 01:22 Antimage wrote:
I've combined my sc/wc3 hotkeys, coincidentally...

5/6/7 all different production buildings, 8/9/0 for nexus, and 2/3/4 in unit groups to use to flank.

1 will be something special like a key observer or warp prism, but sometimes oddly enough i just won't use it.


Why would you pet nexus on 3 different hotkeys, and why would you put them on the most far away keys?

Why would you put production buildings on 3 different keys?
P⊧[1]<a>[2]<a>[3]<a>tt | P ≝ 1.a.2.a.3.a.P
Tristan
Profile Blog Joined December 2009
Canada566 Posts
March 15 2010 16:31 GMT
#10
1 MBS Hatcheries
2 Queens
3 Evo chambers / tech buildings with upgrades / spires / etc
4 Nydus Network when applicable
5 - 0 Armies, usually leave the last few for quick drone select for emergency burrow when harassed.
http://Zangano431.tumblr.com/
StayFrosty
Profile Joined February 2010
Canada743 Posts
March 15 2010 16:40 GMT
#11
So far nobody has really talked about hand positioning -_-
ROOTFayth
Profile Joined January 2004
Canada3351 Posts
March 15 2010 16:43 GMT
#12
On March 16 2010 01:09 Sejong wrote:
Right now I like:

1-3 units
4 all units
5 nexus
6 nexus
7 nexus

Am I the only one that likes each nexus separately? I am doing this so that I can chrono all the time. How else can it be done?

you can still chrono boost by selecting all nexuses at the same time, it should just use up 1 chrono boost
sysrpl
Profile Joined February 2010
United States222 Posts
March 15 2010 17:01 GMT
#13
1 - All Nexus and All Gateways/Warpgates
2 - All Nexus and All Stargates and Robo Facilities
3 - All Nexus and All Forges and All Cybernetics and All Robo bays

4-0 Units

Why is it important to keep all you nexus and buildings together? Because you can do this:

1 + Tab (select all warp gates)
Z + Shift + Left click spam warp in zealots until you run out of resources or warp gates
Tab (nexus group is is the first default section)
C (chrono boost from any nexus with energy)
Shift + Left click spam all the warpgates in the bottom HUD (you've now chrono boosted all warp gates, warp in cool down is cut in half, or your macro rate is doubled)

So that is: 1, Tab, Z, (shift left click spam warp in), Tab, C, (shift left click spam chrono boost)

By keeping all nexus in your building selections, you both have nexus selections and building selections in the same HUD, allowing you to press C and shift left click spam chrono boost without switching HUDs.


Ipecac
Profile Joined March 2010
United States3 Posts
March 15 2010 17:22 GMT
#14
1,2,3 units
4-infestors
5-hatcherys
6-queens + hatcherys
Nerd rage makes the internet fun.
omninmo
Profile Blog Joined April 2008
2349 Posts
March 15 2010 17:31 GMT
#15
On March 16 2010 01:31 TheElitists wrote:
1 MBS Hatcheries
2 Queens
3 Evo chambers / tech buildings with upgrades / spires / etc
4 Nydus Network when applicable
5 - 0 Armies, usually leave the last few for quick drone select for emergency burrow when harassed.


im gonna try this when playing as zerg. 5a6a7a is so much easier. <--not a meme-joke.
onmach
Profile Blog Joined March 2009
United States1241 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-03-15 17:35:48
March 15 2010 17:34 GMT
#16
1-3 units
4 all queens and all the hatcheries that happen to have a queen, when a queen pops, I add it and its hatcher to here
5 all hatcheries (except new expansions that are far flung).
6 new expansions that require droning but I don't want to send drones from my main

7890 none.

Middle finger on 5, index on 6, pinky on s, so 5sdddd, 5szzzz, 6sdddd.
When macroing middle on 4, index on r., 4,r,click,r,click,r,click.

Only problem is getting back to mains or expos to defend. I should probably use 0 for main.
Skyze
Profile Blog Joined November 2008
Canada2324 Posts
March 15 2010 17:37 GMT
#17
pretty sure the nexus guy probably uses the hotkeys as a quick way to get to each base, like the F1 keys. Thats how I do it mainly earlygame til more production buildings are out

1 - Nexus
2 - Gateways/Warpgates
3 - Star/Robos
4 - Earlygame 2nd Nexus / Lategame the other that isnt on #3 (if robos on 3, then star on 4)

5 onwards is units. Usually only go up to 8 in BW, but might be able to keep it to three groups in SC2, easier than using tab for spells.
Canada Gaming ~~ The-Feared
Tristan
Profile Blog Joined December 2009
Canada566 Posts
March 15 2010 17:38 GMT
#18
On March 16 2010 02:31 omninmo wrote:
Show nested quote +
On March 16 2010 01:31 TheElitists wrote:
1 MBS Hatcheries
2 Queens
3 Evo chambers / tech buildings with upgrades / spires / etc
4 Nydus Network when applicable
5 - 0 Armies, usually leave the last few for quick drone select for emergency burrow when harassed.


im gonna try this when playing as zerg. 5a6a7a is so much easier. <--not a meme-joke.


Also might be because I'm a macro fiend and if my APM were multiplied by several times Id play like a zerg version of Flash >_>
http://Zangano431.tumblr.com/
Perseverance
Profile Joined February 2010
Japan2800 Posts
March 15 2010 17:44 GMT
#19
1-4 Units
5 Special
6-8 Hatcheries
9-0 Detection
<3 Moonbattles
DragonDefonce
Profile Blog Joined April 2008
United States790 Posts
March 15 2010 17:44 GMT
#20
From your post I feel like you are trying to localize a finger to a key and not move your hand too much. This is a bad habit and you should try to get in the habit of being light on your hand. Think of playing piano for example. A pianist doesn't say "I will always use my thumb to play the middle C", instead he uses whatever finger that is closest and won't mess up notes before and after it.
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