|
I'm a diamond protoss player, and i believe that i'm improving a lot and will make masters soon. unfortunately, my hotkeys are pretty non-existent and i don't want to make it to masters with flawed mechanics and slow reactions. I have 2 friends in masters league that are suffering from their mechanics and lack of hotkeys, and they refuse to change their game because they'll be considerably worse for awhile.
I am really committed to improving in a way that allows me to not skill-cap myself. sorry for that rant, but i think its important i get that in there.
anyways, Hotkeys: 1:nexus(s) 2:scout probe 4: robo
trying: 5:nexus(s) 4: robo 3:Gateways 1,2:army
the problems i'm having is that my fingers are trained as 1e for probes and it kinda hurts my hand/ feels awkward to hit 5e. i want my building hotkeys moved to the right tho, so my immediate emergency hotkeys are my army.
my question is basically, is there any advantage in having units set on the left side or does anyone feel comfortable in crisis mode with army set on right side? does anyone else have experience switching hotkeys after playing a fuck-ton of games to know how long it should take me to get used to?
And of course any random advice on the topic would be greatly appreciated.
TL;DR
changing hotkeys, feels awkward, how long should it take to get used to? anyone with experience? any advantage in army on left side of hotkeys? and any extra advice
Ty so much in advance. Means a lot =)
Edit: just adding in that i virtually have no hotkeys, so the topic shouldn't be limited to resetting them, but also just solid advice in how i can use them appropriately
|
Hotkeys are personal, but if you are going to change, I would at least make sure that you have three groups free for units.
|
I had to remap my hotkeys around the time I was in Platinum, and it did slow my play, but only for 3-5 games...
My advice would be to map out something ahead of time that makes sense for YOU, then DO IT, and DO IT AGAIN over and over...
What I did, was layout what I wanted (I did the following)
4 - CC
5-6-7 (Barracks, Factory, Starport)
8 - Free
9 - Armories/Engineering Bays/Ghost Academies/Tech Labs
0 - Free
1-2-3 (Army/Vikings/Casters)
Basically, I just DECIDED to use hotkeys for certain things, and forced myself to use them, in very short order it became habit. I'm not saying these hotkeys are the best for you, but they made sense, and there was a pattern to me, so adopting it was easy.
But I'd emphasize on deciding ahead of time what you're going to hotkey everything...and not just decide to hotkey things randomly in-game.
|
Protoss hotkeys are not as essential (in my opinion) just based on how their mid/late game army works. They are a ball, so division of units is not as necessary and you get a free W for warpgates which is quite handy.
My set up when I play Protoss is 5 for my Nexus (something from my Zerg play, my main building is always 5), Robos on 4, Stargates on 6, and army goes on 1 and 2. 2 is usually Spellcasters.
If you watch iNcontroL, his hotkey set up rarely stretches beyond 5 and he is one of the best Toss around. However, since this thread is also about how to go about changing them, I think I can offer some advice there. I just re-did my hotkey set up as Zerg (my main race). I was finding myself frustrated with how my army control would get so broken up when I had to do injects because I would do them so inefficiently. My old set up was to put all my Queens on 4 and just click around the mini map. I was watching IdrA stream and notices he uses individual Queens. Anyways, you're not Zerg, so this doesn't matter.
My point is actually in order to switch, I just went into a Custom game against a computer, go my late game like 4/5 bases up and a huge flock of Mutas and just flew them around while practicing my new inject system in a timely manner. This made my comfortable with it, enough so to bring it on the ladder. I would reccomend just playing a game or two against a computer and just play to the late game (obvz letting him stay alive) and just practice hitting the buttons when it matters and hitting your warpcycles on time and whatnot.
|
I changed my control group hotkeys to 12345TGB67 after playing normally since beta. you can imagine how hard it was to get used to it.
What I did was play tons of FFA. It doesn't matter if you lose or fuck up, but they are still fun enough that you'll want to win. I think I played about 10-15 before I thought I was used to the hotkeys enough to continue 1v1ing. (I even got an FFA achievement, yay!)
|
On May 20 2011 17:57 Durn wrote:
Protoss hotkeys are not as essential (in my opinion) just based on how their mid/late game army works. They are a ball, so division of units is not as necessary and you get a free W for warpgates which is quite handy.
My set up when I play Protoss is 5 for my Nexus (something from my Zerg play, my main building is always 5), Robos on 4, Stargates on 6, and army goes on 1 and 2. 2 is usually Spellcasters.
If you watch iNcontroL, his hotkey set up rarely stretches beyond 5 and he is one of the best Toss around. However, since this thread is also about how to go about changing them, I think I can offer some advice there. I just re-did my hotkey set up as Zerg (my main race). I was finding myself frustrated with how my army control would get so broken up when I had to do injects because I would do them so inefficiently. My old set up was to put all my Queens on 4 and just click around the mini map. I was watching IdrA stream and notices he uses individual Queens. Anyways, you're not Zerg, so this doesn't matter.
My point is actually in order to switch, I just went into a Custom game against a computer, go my late game like 4/5 bases up and a huge flock of Mutas and just flew them around while practicing my new inject system in a timely manner. This made my comfortable with it, enough so to bring it on the ladder. I would reccomend just playing a game or two against a computer and just play to the late game (obvz letting him stay alive) and just practice hitting the buttons when it matters and hitting your warpcycles on time and whatnot.
i agree that toss is not as essential, and incontrol is certainly an amazing player, but i truly believe that this is a trend in sc that will eventually stop being the standard. if you watch huk play, he has a ton of hotkeys, and even though he could win games without it, it makes him ten times more active with his units around the map. and also is fastest way to organize your army. Ty for the custom advice and i actually appreciate you describing your experience.
one thing ill add to the op is that i virtually have no hotkeys, so the topic shouldn't be limited to resetting them, but also just solid advice in how i can use them appropriately. thanks guys. all of your comments are helping 
|
I have pretty bad hand -eye coordination so hotkeys for me are pretty akward.
I set it to grid which worked a little better at first but still, the way keyboard keys are stagard
from row to row meant I would still always hit the wrong key with my pinky finger.
So what I did was set all the secondary hotkeys for grid and control groups to the numpad , arrow
keys, and the 6 document buttons.
so the 1- 9 keys correspond to the left 9 buttons of the grid
decimal and zero are the the right two buttons in the top row, so
attack would be zero , banshees would be decimal
I was playing random while doing the coop achievements so
currently
divide = burrow/unburrow
multiply =lift off /land
subtract = select all warpgates
plus= cancel
pgdn= orbital commands, hatcheries, nexus
end = barracks, gateways. secondary hatcheries
delete= factories , robos, nydus exits , also PFs till i'm done making scvs with them
PgUp= upgrade structures
home = starports, queens, stargates
insert= ghost academies, Nydus entrances
up arrow , airforce
down arrow , ground army
right arrow , casters
left arrow , scout
I have pretty low APM so having things line up perfectly left to right , top to bottom
plus the clear separation of the units groups base groups and other buttons helps a ton.
only thing I really dont have on that side that I want would be some location keys , which if I were to
pick a race to play to ladder would replace 2 of the racial keys I have set to divide, multiply, minus
|
Do the the way you like but make sure it makes sense 
I remember back in BW days Nony's (now tyler) hotkeys were 1, 2, 3, for his nexuses, and 4+ for army. If you're having trouble with 5 being so far why dont you put nexus on 4, and robo on 5 instead.
Just to give you an example how awkward my hotkeys are, ive kept using the early game tvz BW hotkeys that nearly every single terran was using for early game.
It used to go like this: 1- marines, 2-cc, 3-medics, 4&5-rax
In SC2, i havent felt the need to go over 2-3 hotkeys for units unlike BW, hence my CCs remain on 2 the entire game..and its so much more convenient that way. Just giving you an idea...
Its all about comfort and being efficient. GL
|
I've done it like this..
½ (changed it so it is working as 0) - Nexus(es)
1-3 - Army (putting spellcasters in 1 and 2, all army in 3)
4-5 - Production (Robo, Stargate etc)
6 - Observer/late scouting or just for a current situation
7-9 - Upgrades (as you don't use them often they're not important for nearby clicking)
W - Warpgate
In early game I use 1 for Gateways and I use 5 for scouting probe.
Personally, it works really, really well.
|
On May 20 2011 19:16 Bambipwnsu wrote:Do the the way you like but make sure it makes sense I remember back in BW days Nony's (now tyler) hotkeys were 1, 2, 3, for his nexuses, and 4+ for army. If you're having trouble with 5 being so far why dont you put nexus on 4, and robo on 5 instead. Just to give you an example how awkward my hotkeys are, ive kept using the early game tvz BW hotkeys that nearly every single terran was using for early game. It used to go like this: 1- marines, 2-cc, 3-medics, 4&5-rax In SC2, i havent felt the need to go over 2-3 hotkeys for units unlike BW, hence my CCs remain on 2 the entire game..and its so much more convenient that way. Just giving you an idea... Its all about comfort and being efficient. GL
i don't even kno what fingers i would use if it was 4. it felt really awkward when i tried it. is it bad i only use my index and middle finger for my set hotkeys?
|
Zerg Play:
1-Infestors
2-All Army
3-Ranged/Air/Anti Air
4-All Hatcheries
5-8 Queens. Yes, some people think this is bad, I like it because I can jump from base to base easier IMO.
9-Evo Chambers
Protoss Play:
1-High Temps
2-All Army
3-Ranged/Air/Anti Air
4-Nexi
5-Warpgates (Not the warpgate key, that's still W)
6-Robo
7-Stargate
8-Forges
Terran Play:
F-10 + N because I fucking hate Terran and never meant to play them.
|
On May 20 2011 19:35 SxYSpAz wrote:Show nested quote +On May 20 2011 19:16 Bambipwnsu wrote:Do the the way you like but make sure it makes sense I remember back in BW days Nony's (now tyler) hotkeys were 1, 2, 3, for his nexuses, and 4+ for army. If you're having trouble with 5 being so far why dont you put nexus on 4, and robo on 5 instead. Just to give you an example how awkward my hotkeys are, ive kept using the early game tvz BW hotkeys that nearly every single terran was using for early game. It used to go like this: 1- marines, 2-cc, 3-medics, 4&5-rax In SC2, i havent felt the need to go over 2-3 hotkeys for units unlike BW, hence my CCs remain on 2 the entire game..and its so much more convenient that way. Just giving you an idea... Its all about comfort and being efficient. GL i don't even kno what fingers i would use if it was 4. it felt really awkward when i tried it. is it bad i only use my index and middle finger for my set hotkeys?
Just go into hotkeys and rebound probe production to "s". It wont affect your production of stalkers as they are related to your gateways and not nexus. Pressing 4S or 5S seems pretty comfortable to me. The SC2 UI is very forgiving
Keep in mind in broodwar the probe production key was "p". People either had to press 0p9p8p or pressed a closer number followed by a mouse press on the icon.
|
all you need to be good for a protoss player is Army on hotkey #1 and - 1A + FFFFFFF.
|
i dont think that you old hotkeys are that bad
im high masters right now and have kind of an ugly setup and i dont think anyone would come up with sth ridic like that but here it is (im terran)
1-orbitals
2-barracks
3-factories
4-starports
5-e-bays/armorys
thats pretty standard but you might ask yourself "where do you hotkey your army?"
what i do is that i put my army on 8;9;0 and have them as a macro on my mouse so that means that i dont use the keyboard for my army but instead i use my mouse so i can use the other hotkeys (6;7;8) for whatever i want without reaching all over my keyboard to select my army
|
I play zerg but I had a similar problem, I really wanted to use the 8, 9, and 0 hotkeys but always thought it was impossible for me since i was already the clumsiest human being with a keyboard, SC2 was pretty much my first pc game that I played a lot. Anyway, what I did was I always used those hotkeys for something really specific that i use every game, for example an overseer or evo chambers to check upgrades, and i forced myself to use those hotkeys consistently until eventually after playing many games it kinda just became natural to reach that far away key.
Just force yourself to hit 5 for your nexus or whatever hotkeys you want to learn, it'll feel weird for a few games but it'll stick if you keep at it, dont be afraid to look at the keyboard while you're learning either, just give your fingers some time to get used to the distance.
|
On May 20 2011 18:56 Badmoon wrote:
I have pretty bad hand -eye coordination so hotkeys for me are pretty akward.
I set it to grid which worked a little better at first but still, the way keyboard keys are stagard
from row to row meant I would still always hit the wrong key with my pinky finger.
So what I did was set all the secondary hotkeys for grid and control groups to the numpad , arrow
keys, and the 6 document buttons.
so the 1- 9 keys correspond to the left 9 buttons of the grid
decimal and zero are the the right two buttons in the top row, so
attack would be zero , banshees would be decimal
I was playing random while doing the coop achievements so
currently
divide = burrow/unburrow
multiply =lift off /land
subtract = select all warpgates
plus= cancel
pgdn= orbital commands, hatcheries, nexus
end = barracks, gateways. secondary hatcheries
delete= factories , robos, nydus exits , also PFs till i'm done making scvs with them
PgUp= upgrade structures
home = starports, queens, stargates
insert= ghost academies, Nydus entrances
up arrow , airforce
down arrow , ground army
right arrow , casters
left arrow , scout
I have pretty low APM so having things line up perfectly left to right , top to bottom
plus the clear separation of the units groups base groups and other buttons helps a ton.
only thing I really dont have on that side that I want would be some location keys , which if I were to
pick a race to play to ladder would replace 2 of the racial keys I have set to divide, multiply, minus
How do u make units out of your structures?
|
On May 20 2011 17:40 SxYSpAz wrote:
the problems i'm having is that my fingers are trained as 1e for probes and it kinda hurts my hand/ feels awkward to hit 5e. i want my building hotkeys moved to the right tho, so my immediate emergency hotkeys are my army.
When you have to press multiple keys for a desired action you either want to change your hotkeys so if using one finger it barely has to move, -OR- change your hotkeys so that it's easy to use 2+ fingers to hit the necessary keys. When doing '1e' to build your probes you were probably using two fingers to do it, whereas with your nexus on '5' I'm betting that you're trying to hit both keys with your index finger? '5, e' to build probes doesn't feel very nice at all, but '5, r' sure does! Why not change the probe button to 'r'?
For example, I changed my hatchery hotkey to be on 'W' as Zerg (using 'W' as a replacement for '9'); this means to select larvae I simply hit: w, s. Super duper easy! You can do that almost instantly with your middle finger, which allows my index finger to be in position for the unit I want. I also put 'select larvae' on 'D' as an extra, alternate hotkey (so both 's' and 'd' both work for selecting larvae). How do I make drones? Wdddddddddd!
my question is basically, is there any advantage in having units set on the left side or does anyone feel comfortable in crisis mode with army set on right side?
You should place your units wherever you feel that they're most comfortable for you. I've seen pro players use both. You can split up unit / building groupings too - what's wrong with 1, nexus, 2-4 army, 5-7 other production buildings? (don't forget you're not limited to just the number buttons) You need to sit down and just think for a while and decide for yourself what you think would work well and just go do it.
does anyone else have experience switching hotkeys after playing a fuck-ton of games to know how long it should take me to get used to?
I did fairly drastic changes to my hotkey setup, and I had problems for a while leading me to almost undo it all. Just stick with it. I believe the key is a good length practice session - if you can practice your new hotkeys for 10 games in one sitting that's going to help you a LOT more than if you play 10 games with big gaps in between. If your new hotkey setup really is better the transition should be easy(ish), because it'll make playing the game easier. This is why you're having problems moving your nexuses to '5' without changing the build probe hotkey - you actually made it harder for yourself to build probes.
|
I just got a new mouse and have Scroll up mapped to 0 and scroll down mapped to 9. Then my armies at 9 and 0, buildings 1-4 (Terran).
|
|
|
On May 20 2011 23:32 Deckkie wrote:Show nested quote +On May 20 2011 18:56 Badmoon wrote:
I have pretty bad hand -eye coordination so hotkeys for me are pretty akward.
I set it to grid which worked a little better at first but still, the way keyboard keys are stagard
from row to row meant I would still always hit the wrong key with my pinky finger.
So what I did was set all the secondary hotkeys for grid and control groups to the numpad , arrow
keys, and the 6 document buttons.
so the 1- 9 keys correspond to the left 9 buttons of the grid
decimal and zero are the the right two buttons in the top row, so
attack would be zero , banshees would be decimal
I was playing random while doing the coop achievements so
currently
divide = burrow/unburrow
multiply =lift off /land
subtract = select all warpgates
plus= cancel
pgdn= orbital commands, hatcheries, nexus
end = barracks, gateways. secondary hatcheries
delete= factories , robos, nydus exits , also PFs till i'm done making scvs with them
PgUp= upgrade structures
home = starports, queens, stargates
insert= ghost academies, Nydus entrances
up arrow , airforce
down arrow , ground army
right arrow , casters
left arrow , scout
I have pretty low APM so having things line up perfectly left to right , top to bottom
plus the clear separation of the units groups base groups and other buttons helps a ton.
only thing I really dont have on that side that I want would be some location keys , which if I were to
pick a race to play to ladder would replace 2 of the racial keys I have set to divide, multiply, minus
How do u make units out of your structures?
If I want to make an SCV I hit PgDn to select CC and then hit 7 which corresponds to the grid in the build box
Marines would be End 7
Battlecruisers Home zero
for attack moving the air force up arrow zero
stalkers from warpgates minus 9
and so on
|
|
|
|
|
|
EPT
