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Hello TL commnunity !
I have been thinking for a while about zerg custom hotkeys, and I would like to share my "almost definitive" setup.
The goal of this setup is purely focused on player performance. I am looking for accelerating the hotkeys access by reducing the fingers/hand traveling distance, and by using the fingers properly. I'll try to describe clearly and shortly my most important changes and features, because I know that custom hotkeys threads are sometimes hard to read, and because it is necessary to picture the setup and what the player is trying to do.
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EDIT 05/11/2011
After a few hundreds games and a little spot won in master league (Actually around 800), I propose you the last modification of my hotkey setup. This setup answers to my two main needs:
-Fast access to keys and no need to move the hand through the keyboard.
-Many extra group keys available, for now and for future units.
Please comment.
Uploaded with ImageShack.us
Complementary information:
"Tab" is "Base camera". I select all my queens with "Tilde" (~) and inject with "Q".
The key "C" is "Select larvas" and "Basic mutation" at the same time. I use "Space" for "Advanced mutation".
All my keys for units and buildings are spread on:
QW-R
ASDF
-XCV
On the hotkey number "1", the defensive units are usualy the 1 or 2 queens of my natural (the ones which don't inject, so they can spread creep tumors, heal, and fight), but it may change for a speedling group which intercept drops, or a scouting units (drone early game with chain gas steal, or an overseer).
All the unit morphings are set on Q.
All the building morphings are set on T.
And finally, "S" is still stop, and "W" is hold position.
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EDIT 02/24/2011
I am adding a new version of my setup. I think that I am really reaching something close from what I wanted, and I am really satisfy by these modifications. Feel free to take a look and make comments.
Uploaded with ImageShack.us
Explanations:
The two little red "A" are attack keys
The green squares are units/building construction keys.
Blue are hotkeys for macro and economy.
1- All queens
2- All queens not "binded" to an hartchery
3- All hartcheries
Note: Very early game
1- Overlord scout
2- Drone scout
3- All hartcheries
Red are groups for micro and units.
3- Zergling scout/harass group
4- Main army
5- Bannelings
6- Corruptors
Esc- Mutalisks
Note: These groups might vary in game. Three other control groups are binded on my mouse
Orange are abilities and add/create group fonctions.
As shown by the picture, F2 F3 F4 and F5 are the "fast group units adding" fonction.
Shift- Add units
Alt and Ctrl- Create groups
Tab- Base selection
SPACEBAR- Fungal growth/Heal/Queen production/Boom bannelings/Unload overlords/ Corruption
V- Burrow
E- Neural parasite
T- Infested Terran
B- Cancel construction
Shift+spacebar- Select Idle worker
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The original idea is to have a two "hand position" setup. One for Macro, and one for Micro. First take a look at my setup:
![[image loading]](http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/6666/customhotkeyzergamance.th.jpg)
Uploaded with ImageShack.us
Explanations:
Macro: Hand on left side of the keyboard
Early game, I do:
1- Second hartch
2- All queens
3- First hartch
I do separated hartch cause it is important to differientiate what larvas to use between the main and the natural, especially in the case of early agression. When I get my third, forth or fith queen, they will be set on "1" so I can use them to block ramp, spread creep, defend against banshee/void ray, all of that without bothering too much my "Injection queens". It is still important to have them all on "2", for healing and emergency purposes.
I choosed the base camera Injection macro. I select all queens, then shift+Inject, and I press tab and click several time on hartcheries for a super fast injection. It is in my opinion the fastest way to do, but the major flaw is to be careful to not click an hartchery without a queen, or another queen will travel to reach it.
Finally, I reach hartch upgrades with my thumb. I also put select larva on "C" (In my opinion faster to access than "S" because different finger are at work). I use "C" also for my build basic structure key (closer than "B").
Micro: Hand on the midle of the keyboard
Group on 4,5,6,7 and T
-The attack key is overspammed during a game, so it should be under the index for faster accessibility and speed. I decided to put Y (it is T on grid, so actually not so different).
Space bar is the ultimate key. It's big and accessible from everywhere. I put it the banneling explosion, the fungal growth, the overlord unload, the heal for the queen, and the corruption. My fungal growth for example has to be a reflex key, activated in less than one second. I bind my infestors on T, ant I just T, under my index, and spam spacebar with my thumb. For bannelings, I found really fast and accessible to make them explode with spacebar also.
For muta, I really wanted a key that I would never miss. I choose escape, and it is still under test. I am hesitating to select the muta group with my side mouse buttons. I add the new muta in the existing group simply by selecting them and pressing F1. I also have others "fast grouping keys" with F5 to F8. That allows to not make hand gymnastic to add units in groups with shift.
That's all for now. I haven't describe my building and units creation setup, but they are all concentrated on the left 12 letters on the keyboard for for fast access.
I would really apreciate any comments on this setup. What's in your opinion good or bad ? What would you do differently to optimize even more ? Did I forget something important ?
Thank you 
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Russian Federation4295 Posts
Grid is the best and tilde as backspace, plus picture below
![[image loading]](http://img210.imageshack.us/img210/3868/69800717.th.jpg)
With big finger I can multi-inject a lot hacteries very fast. So with this hotkey scheme zerg macro is easiest in SC2, easiest than terran and protoss macro
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Is it possible to re-map the ctrl key?
I have not been able to find out how. I would very much like to make CTRL = `
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"I am looking for accelerating the hotkeys access by reducing the fingers/hand traveling distance"
I see you use a lot of keys though.
I think my setup is better in this aspect.
I use 1-3 for army, 4 for all queens, TAB for all hatches. I moved all upgrades to Q,W,E and I never use the F1-9 keys (I have a w3 background).
Initially I had all hatches on 5 but it seemed too far away, making me move my hand!!!
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I also prefered grid than classic. I do think that it is the best setup to optimize the hand traveling distance.
My setup has some elements in common with the grid, because a lot of my buildings, units and competencies are regrouped on the left side on the keyboard and are using the same keys. However, I think that the grid does not provide an optimal accessibility for the fingers ("a sort of fingers combo" like the examples for bannelings and Infestor that I gave). I agree also that it is a problem that can surely be solved once the player get use to it. In my opinion, it also limits the number of groups that you can efficiently use, because after group 6, you hand had to do a hard gymnastic to reach the left hotkeys on the keyboard.
I like how you are using your mouse to bind these macro functions. I am looking for setting some stuff on my mouse also but I don't know what is best. Also, I noticed that only the "GLOBAL" section of the custom hotkeys can be binded on my mouse buttons. The "ZERG" section keys must be set on keyboard. I have a logitech G3, and I am really suprised that you can bind select larva with your mouse. Is that a configuration that you are actually using ?
To Roxy:
CRTL, SHIFT and ALT are kinda special. I tried to put a letter to create group (like Q+E to create group E), but it didn't work. You can interchange them with each others, but I notice that you can't set anything else. It must have been decided that way by Blizzard.
To cyclone:
And you're absolutely right. I think that your configuration makes sense and looks a lot like Idra (1,2,3 for combat group, 4 for hartch and 5,6,7 for queens). I even prefer yours because you put upgrades keys closer (supposed that Idra is using the default). The problem that I have with this type of setup, it seriously limits the number of group keys that you can use. A zerg should always have one for muta, one for the group of zergling which scout and harass, and one for the main army. But as you can see, mine has a key for corruptors, one for bannelings and for infestors. They will always be the same for me, and my setup can evolve to contains the future units added by the extensions. Finally, using camera jump with F2,F3,F4 is a matter of preferences
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One thing to be careful of when remapping multiple commands to the same key is that sometimes, you might give the wrong order. It would suck to accidentally blow up all your banelings.
Another thing is just to practice with your setup and see if it works for you. I've tried lots of hotkey changes that I thought would be more efficient, but in practice I never made use of them or I was already more comfortable with the old. This is a very individual thing, so your own feedback is probably more important than the opinions of others on an online forum.
PS - my own magic spacebar is:
Space- alternate attack move
Shift-Space - town centre
Ctrl-Space - see recent event
I haven't thought of anything to put on Alt-Space yet.
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Don't you have to create a new profile when you customize hotkeys?
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On February 18 2011 05:04 Existor wrote:Grid is the best and tilde as backspace, plus picture below With big finger I can multi-inject a lot hacteries very fast. So with this hotkey scheme zerg macro is easiest in SC2, easiest than terran and protoss macro
Grid is really really bad for zerg. That is unless you like researching drop when you have no larva. Grid also has issues with having rhythm in your fingers. With grid you constantly go from bottom row to top row or are constantly using the same finger twice in a row (which is bad). Default is designed to limit this, take for example building units. Pretty much every unit uses a different unit from the finger you use to select larva, the exception being zerglings if you don't use your pinky for z. Also since it's 's' to select larva and your ring finger is used for the army based hotkey groups you also get a rhythm from index/middle to hit 4 or 5 then s with the ring finger then your units with a non-ring finger. and the units that use your index finger to build (ultras, mutalisks, infestors, possibly roaches) are grouped pretty close to 4/5/6 which are the common hotkeys for hatcheries. So you get this short distance if you are making those units by hitting 5st.
I've been thinking about moving Vomit Larva to spacebar. I already hit vomit with my thumb, but it'd be a little more comfortable and faster (I think) if it was space. Has anyone tried this at all? So far the only key I've moved is ovie speed to u and I think I may move it back I'm not sure I like it there.
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To Zylog:
Yes I sometime researched some upgrades by mistake due to a too strong concentration of hotkeys in an area, My configuration is a little broader now, and I avoid most of these mistakes. It is also true that I am lacking of practice to give a complete feedback on this setup, because I have been changing it a lot these last few weeks. Even if I put a lot of thought into it, I still feel unsecured that I could miss something big. There are important elements that I have learnt only recently, like the base selection or "backspace" in the injection macro process. I would not like to have to redo everything if I figure out a new feature, especially once I worked hard to master this setup. This is why I am asking for help. However, I totally agree that using this setup a lot is the best way to detect its flaws.
To Darkhydra:
Yes you have to create a new profile, but this is very simple and you can create as many profiles as you want and select one instantly. I do switch between profiles when I do some tests, in order to keep my previous profile unchanged, and to have a second version only slightly modified. Plus they are stored in your account so you can access to them from any computers.
To Logo:
That's a good point to set one of the queen ability on spacebar. As you noticed, "spacebar" instead of "V" presents the advantage to never press the wrong hotkey, and you will get use to it very fast. I prefered to put "Heal", but I feel so confortable with that key that it has also many of my other units abilities. I even considered to put "attack" on it like like Zylog did. Also, thank you for illustrating in great details the accessibility problems that I encounter with the grid system as a zerg.
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On February 18 2011 06:15 zylog wrote:
One thing to be careful of when remapping multiple commands to the same key is that sometimes, you might give the wrong order. It would suck to accidentally blow up all your banelings.
Another thing is just to practice with your setup and see if it works for you. I've tried lots of hotkey changes that I thought would be more efficient, but in practice I never made use of them or I was already more comfortable with the old. This is a very individual thing, so your own feedback is probably more important than the opinions of others on an online forum.
PS - my own magic spacebar is:
Space- alternate attack move
Shift-Space - town centre
Ctrl-Space - see recent event
I haven't thought of anything to put on Alt-Space yet.
I like it!
As a reply to the person who asked if you can remap the controlkey, you probably need an external program such as Autohotkey. It'd look like this:
+ Show Spoiler +NOTE! Anything other than one hotkey -> one hotkey would count as a computer macro, and is not permitted in the EULA. Even if you just bind one->one, use at own discretion. + Show Spoiler +
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EPT![[image loading]](http://img51.imageshack.us/i/hotkey3.jpg/)
![[image loading]](http://img17.imageshack.us/i/amancecustomhotkeyszerg.jpg/)
![[image loading]](http://img515.imageshack.us/i/customhotkeyzergamance.jpg/)
![[image loading]](http://img210.imageshack.us/img210/3868/69800717.jpg)
