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Eventually I would like to create a nice guide for this however for now I will leave it with a [D] tag so we can hash out as much as possible.
As you may or may not know Blizzard launched the 1.2 Patch on the test realm. (Click on the StarCraft II Public Test.exe icon in the root of the install folder of your PC to install).
I am extremely psyched for this change as it will allow us to create a custom hotkey layouts that are optimally setup. This will dramatically increase efficiency for things like larvae injects as well as make things like baneling micro incredibly fun to watch a they will be better controlled! Also because these changes are bound to our profile you can access them for any computer!
Custom Hotkeys on PRT:
1. You can access the new hotkey menu from the main menu (by default this is bound to F10 while in game).
2. There seem to be two different types of hotkey sets Grid and Standard/Classic.
3. Grid Hotkeys: Function with a 1 to 1 mapping that corresponds to the icons location on the menu screen in the lower right hand corner when in game. Changing the hotkey for anything in a particular location will change it for corresponding hotkeys (for both buildings and units). Example: The default hotkey for Move is T in the Grid Layout if you would like to change this to Q you will also change everything else that was in this potion. Since the build SCV with Grid layout is also Q by default it will change to the letter T as well. For this reason I do not think grid custom hotkey layouts will work for most people unless you keep the default layout or something very close to it. Therefore all future references to hotkeys in this guide will pertain to the standard/classic setup unless otherwise specified. Edit: If this section is not clear please let me know (alternate descriptions welcome).
4. Standard/Classic: These hotkeys are much more granular. Changing the default move commands (Attack, Patrol ect) will change the corresponding commands for all units of all races.
5. Individual unit spell hotkeys are independent. (This is important to note because it will allow for some very nice keyboard combinations. For example if you know that your Templars will always be bound to Control Group 9 you can make Psi Storms Hotkey the letter I and then make the Morph Archon Hotkey the letter O and Set the Rally with the letter P. In game this would look something like 9 I click I click I click I click O O P to get off four Psi Storms with four archons and then morph them into two archons and set them rally to a specific location).
6. Changing a hotkey for gateway production will change the corresponding hotkey for warpage units as well.
7. There is a customizable hotkey for warpgates in the Global section.
8. You can use any combination of alt, shift and control for all Control Group hotkeys.
9. Control groups do not have to be a number key.
10. Keys that do not work as a Hotkeys for move commands, spells and production: Control, Alt, Shift, and Print screen
11. Click on the unbound tab to items that do not have a corresponding hotkey.
Creating Custom Hotkeys in 1.1.2:
I have included this for reference as some people may want to setup the same hotkeys in the live version as they have on the PTR:
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=117649
I have not tested this programs effects if any on the PTR if anyone has please let me know.
Optimal Hotkey Setup:
Now for some theorycrafting at its very best. I would like to discuss the optimal setup for hotkeys. It’s a good idea to give this some thought as changing hotkeys is an exhaustive process as there is a great deal of muscle memory that goes along with it. My snap judgment is that all hotkeys will be near the control, alt, shift keys since these are the only things you cannot change atm. (these are used as control group modifiers).
Initial ideas for optimal hotkey discussion:
1. Control 10 (10 keys for control groups) Line layout: Setup in a line of 10 buttons. Control groups of 1-0 bound are bound to a-; instead. Tab key stays the same. This seems like a fairly intuitive setup as its similar to the existing 1-0 Control 10 layout. The drawback is that the h-; keys are far away which can be cumbersome.
2. Control 5 (5 keys for control groups) Line layout: Setup in a line of 5 buttons with an alt modifier for 6-0. Control groups of 1-5 bound to a-g with alt + a-g as control groups 6-0. This makes the keys easier to reach by using alt +a-f for groups 6-0. Control groups 1-5 (a-f) will most likely be for units. Spells can be assigned to q-t and z-b. Tab key stays the same. Unit production control groups will be 6-0 (alt +a-f) with production hotkeys being q-t and z-b. This seems like a fairly intuitive setup as its similar to the existing Control 10 layout broken down in half via use of the alt key and then shifted from the numbers to the letters a-f. This is more convenient than you standard Control 10 layout.
3. Control 5 Custom layout: This would entail setting control groups to something like q,w,a,s,1 (or any 5 letters/numbers) for groups 1-5 and alt + q,w,a,s,1. The advantage of this type of setup is that you are always guaranteed to be using two fingers when deploying movement commands. For example if you wanted to attack with groups 1-3 it would look something like a,d click s,d click q,d click. This may be the optimal layout however it will also be the most difficult to learn as it is the least similar to the current setup.
I would love to get some feedback on your initial thoughts on an optimal layout as well as feedback after actually trying it out. This is an extremely exciting change to the game that I am looking forward to testing out more. I will add as much info to this guide as possible.
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Control 4 Block:
Since most players do not actively use all 10 hotkeys a block of four may work well along with another random keys. For example the letters W, E, S,D could be used for control groups 1-4 and 5-8 via and alt modifier. 1-4 for units and 5-8 for production. The 3 key could be used for control groups 5 and 0 as an axillary hotkey for things like research or a proxy pylon.
Essential Movement Commands:
Its seems as though you really only need three movement commands set to a hotkey. Attack, Patrol and Hold Position. Of these three patrol tends to be used the least and often during low pressure situations thus it can be relegated to a less than optimal hotkey position.
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Rather general question:
Can you edit the funcion of:
- CTRL
- SHIFT
- SPACEBAR
..?
If yes then this would mean that you could, say give ALT the function of CTRL and give SPACEBAR the function of SHIFT - much more comfortable control-group assignment!
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Sadly this does not seem possible ATM. This is why I think most people will settle on hotkeys in the asdw range as they are near the location of control alt and shift.
It would be nice if they added a hotkey for control modifiers 1, 2 and 3 so you could reassign control alt and shift to any other keys.
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On December 07 2010 00:18 Shurafa wrote:
Sadly this does not seem possible ATM. This is why I think most people will settle on hotkeys in the asdw range as they are near the location of control alt and shift.
It would be nice if they added a hotkey for control modifiers 1, 2 and 3 so you could reassign control alt and shift to any other keys.
Sorry if my questions seem stupid, but since I'm a 2nd class European, I can't test the custom hotkeys.
So is it at least possible to relocate SPACE (for going to last action, which I never use because I always end up going to a pylon)? Because you could give SPACE a function that you always need like attack-move or stop (for kiting)
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Holy smokes! Some of these were not obvious, thank you for the post! I'm excited for:
8. You can use any combination of alt, shift and control for all Control Group hotkeys.
9. Control groups do not have to be a number key.
I may be making a change or two to perfect and speed up control groups!
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what would be a good way to consolidate things?
Currently i am using tilde to switch between hatches, qwer for upgrades on buildings
most of the main attack move and stuff like that is normal
but now i have spells on qwe, upgrades on qwer.
Im trying to think of good control group management, im thinking both space and control.
Currently space is burrow/unborrow, build queen(at hatches).
but i think space used as the control group key would be good, also thinking caps lock for attack move key would be good as my pinky could be on both shift and attack move allowing it to be more useful.
how are other people thinking about the most efficient hotkey setup.
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One of the reasons I have not yet gotten into the multiplayer in Starcraft 2 yet is because I wanted custom hotkeys, but they were not included in the game, I am very happy they are finally going to get patched in. I was disapointed because this was a feature that was seen in Warcraft 3 but not in Starcraft 2 at launch. Now that players can set things up hotkey in a manner that feels most natural for them I assume that we are going to see a huge boost in player skill at top levels of play now that players can customize thing how they want and not have to conform to a set of standardizations.
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Rather than use letters for control groups (which can be less intuitive), you can use the F keys. On my laptop, the F keys are directly above their equivalent number key, making it very easy to map half my control groups over to the left side.
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It would be great if some WAR3 vets would jump in here and share some of their experience.
I feel as though we are reinventing the wheel here.
I have been working on this non stop since the PTR launched. #The key issue is how to assign your control groups (the rest will fall into place). You cannot use control group keys for anything but control in addition all movement commands will apply to all units. Add in the fact that you want things to be near the control alt and shift keys and your options become more limited than you would think.
My most sucessful tests have entailed using group 1,q,a,z for production and 3,4 for attack groups (I would like to add 2 more attack groups as well as 2 auxiliary hotkeys to this setup).
Its a work in progress... I will keep posting with regular updates. I hope to start laddering within the next few days to really give the hotkeys a good stress test.
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personally, I think the 6-0 keys are far away and cumbersome, and I really don't understand how on earth people can actively use them. The best I could ever achieve out of the outer control groups is setting 6-0 all to the same thing, so when I try to hit 7 and accidentally press 6 or 8 it doesn't mess me up 
However, the h key seems to be comfortably in my reach... leaving me 6 control groups to work with on the a-; line.
Though, now that I've grown accustomed to the basic keys, I have a feeling I'm going to be doing a lot of messing up no matter how easy the keys are to reach :X
I remember when I first changed to a grid key layout in wc3, the computer would own me >.> I ended up having to just change the necessities, Q= move for surrounds, w = 1st skill, e = 2nd skill, r=3rd, all workers were built using q.
same grid setup for units, I couldn't get used to the buildings in grid formation though.
But alas, I'm unable to participate in the PTR. I'm getting the famous "log into your account manager and add sc2" error.
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I've changed patrol from P to Q, much easier to actually use this now.
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On December 07 2010 09:33 zylog wrote:
Rather than use letters for control groups (which can be less intuitive), you can use the F keys. On my laptop, the F keys are directly above their equivalent number key, making it very easy to map half my control groups over to the left side.
The problem I find with using the function keys as well as 6-0 is that they are relatively far away from the rest of the hotkeys. I feel as though this is a less than optimal setup.
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It's nice to hear that control group hotkey does not need to be a number.
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On December 07 2010 10:47 Shurafa wrote:
It would be great if some WAR3 vets would jump in here and share some of their experience.
I feel as though we are reinventing the wheel here.
I have been working on this non stop since the PTR launched. #The key issue is how to assign your control groups (the rest will fall into place). You cannot use control group keys for anything but control in addition all movement commands will apply to all units. Add in the fact that you want things to be near the control alt and shift keys and your options become more limited than you would think.
My most sucessful tests have entailed using group 1,q,a,z for production and 3,4 for attack groups (I would like to add 2 more attack groups as well as 2 auxiliary hotkeys to this setup).
Its a work in progress... I will keep posting with regular updates. I hope to start laddering within the next few days to really give the hotkeys a good stress test.
You couldn't customize any of that stuff in WAR3. Only unit hotkeys not things like Control 1 and even camera commands/inventory hotkeys on your hero.
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FYI Some Bugs I Found:
1. Seems as though when you set the medivac load hotkey and the marine/marauder stim hotkey to the same character it overwrites the last one used. (When set to different hotkeys they work just fine.)
So if you have stim set to 1 and then set the medivac load hotkey to 1 it will override the stim hotkey and show it as unassigned.
2. Similar behavior was found with burrow and morph to baneling. (When set to different hotkeys they work just fine.)
3. When changing the Base Camera to ` and idle worker to alt + ` you are unable to use control + ` to select all idle works. Not sure if the all idle workers hotkey is missing or if this is a bug.
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My Preliminary Hotkey Layout Analysis:
I play random so this needs to work for all three races:
Production: 1, Q, A, Z
Units: S, D, F Spacebar
Auxillary Hotkeys: Alt + Z, Alt + A (Typically used for research).
Warpgates: Alt + 1
Burrow and Halt Building: E
Base Camera: ~
Last Event notification: Caps Lock
Camera Locations: F1-F4
Idle Worker: is Alt + ~ (WARNING:There is a bug that prevents you from selecting all idle worker with this hotkey)
Attack: G
Hold Position: H
Patrol: J
Unit Abilites: C,V,B and E,R,T
I am using a modified grid pattern for production with most units being produced with the 2, 3, and 4 keys. Unit spells are C, V, B sometimes E,R,T are used as well. C is the default for most unit abilities.
Preliminary Analysis:
Having all of the production hotkeys in a grid is intuitive and efficient as it keeps all of the hotkeys compact on the left side of the keyboard.
Having the unit hotkeys in a line has greatly increased my speed when using multiple control groups. S,G Click D,G Click F,G Click is so smooth and already faster than 1a2a3a which I have been using for decades.
Also having all of the spells on the same/similar hotkeys is phenomenal. Being able to box a group of units and then drop several forcefields with the C key followed by a tab C C C to drop a few Psi Storms is truly a game winner.
Its going to take a month to get used to these hotkeys and I am sure there will be changes. I will keep you posted on the progress.
Looking forward to hearing other peoples layouts.
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So with Blizzard's new hotkey customization feature, we cannot re-assign keys like ctrl or shift to keys like Tab or CapsLock? I prefer the latter two keys since they are closer to the number keys for control groups.
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I already know what I'm going to do with the new custom hotkeys.
5 and 6 are getting moved to Q and W for queens and hatcheries. Build Queen will get moved to shift q.
7 through 10 will get moved to F1 - F4.
This way I've got an extra key for units giving me 4 unit hotkeys, so maybe I'll be able to do some more drops effectively or add in a control group for a second set of banelings for flanking from two sides. Additionally I'll be able to put lots of less urgent control groups on the keys I never used before, like evo chambers and tech buildings, creep tumors, nydus worms and overlords.
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EPT
